Legend of the Lightsmith
by HnS-Ryouichi
Summary: Naruto finds himself a victim of a space-time jutsu, stranded in an unfamiliar new world. Resigned to his fate, he decides to make the most of what he has and enter a new world. A world of magic and chivalry. To take on the adventure of a lifetime, to travel the path of emperors, Royal Road!
1. Royal Road

**Chapter 1: Royal Road**

xxxx

Author's Note: I haven't abandoned writing, but it's very hard. I'm a perfectionist, and many times it can work against me. I write best when brimming with inspiration. The inspiration is currently of this story, though I can say that I'll still be writing Tsuchi no Kuni first and foremost. My only real fear is that the fanfiction community for the series might die after the series ends. It might happen.

xxxx

Naruto groaned. His body hurt something awful and it felt like he was lying on stone. Naruto opened his eyes tenderly. His vision focused and he found himself alone in a dark alleyway.

_What the... Where am I?_

He got to his feet unsteadily and looked around. His surroundings looked like any typical alleyway.

_Except I wasn't in an alley when I blacked out. I was... on a mission to confiscate dangerous objects. We were underground. It was also midday, but it's night now. How long was I out for? Shit, everything was going smoothly too. We beat up the bad guys who were trying to steal some scroll. Then I touched it. Something happened, I think that I triggered some sort of trap, and then the world turned inside out. And I ended up here, in this alley. I should... find out exactly where I landed myself._

Shouldering the aches and pain, Naruto limped to the alley's bright exit. As he exited the alley, he was bombarded with a plethora of lights, causing him to wince in discomfort. When his vision cleared, what Naruto saw left him speechless. While he was no stranger to the brightly lit red-light districts back in Konoha, this was on an entirely different level. Buildings reaching hundreds of meters into the sky, giant, building-mounted television screens displaying colorful advertisements, and a medley of horseless vehicles passing orderly.

_Wha-wha-what? Where-what-where am I?_

He turned this way and that, overwhelmed by the fantastic technology all around him.

[Hey, what? You, are you drunk?]

Naruto cocked his head as he faced the speaker. Without a doubt, the man who'd just spoken had done so in a language he didn't understand. That was rather strange, because everyone he knew within and without the Elemental Continent spoke the same language.

_Could it be that the scroll launched me to, like, the other side of the planet on some undiscovered continent?_

[Che, _foreigners_.] \ Hey kid! Answer my question: are you drunk? You don't look old enough to buy liquor. Show me your ID. /

"Sorry, I don't understand you."

[Wha- oh, you speak Japanese. Geez, it's been, what... twelve years since I took that Japanese language class? Haha... Back when I thought I could be a diplomat...] "You, come... with me. I am police."

_Oh,_ _this guy speaks a bit of my language! But can I trust him? _Naruto looked the man up and down. _He said he was a policeman. But why would a man of the law want me to come with him? Am I going to be interrogated?! Am I going to be accused of being a spy?! _He broke into a cold sweat and his body tensed. _Should I run? Maybe I should run._

The policeman noticed the reaction and became slightly unnerved. [What... Don't tell me this guy committed a crime or something... Hahhh, why is it always on my watch?] "Don't worry. You are safe. I won't hurt you. Are you okay?"

"I'm okay." _Safe? Does this mean I'm not going to be accused of outrageous crimes? Can I believe him?_

"Good. Please, come." The man gestured to the police car sitting at the end of the block.

… _I'll risk it. If push comes to shove, I'm pretty confident I'll be able to break free. _Naruto nodded. As soon as the man turned to walk to the vehicle, Naruto created a Kage Bunshin and sent it back into the alley. _Insurance. Just in case._ He had the clone sit down and begin gathering natural energy for Sage Mode if he needed it.

He followed the policeman and, when prompted with the open door, entered the vehicle. Then, he imitated the man putting on a harness of some kind. After a few minutes of movement, the vehicle stopped and the man opened the door for him in front of a large building. Though he wanted to ask where they were, he wasn't sure if he'd understand. It seemed the man only possessed rudimentary knowledge of his language.

Inside the building were many more men and women dressed like the one he was following.

_This must be a police station. I got sent to a place kind of like this a few times when I was a kid. Back when there was a police force, anyway, what with the Uchiha massacre and all._

[Can I get a Japanese translator into Room 3?]

[Yes, Sergeant.]

Led into a room, Naruto sat and closed his eyes, waiting patiently. Nothing about his surroundings or the demeanor of the people engendered any panic in him. It seemed his worst fears could be put to rest. Still, the technology he'd just seen and experienced bothered him.

_I've never seen buildings that tall before, or horseless vehicles. It's pretty hard to believe that a continent no one's discovered would have advanced technology like this. Maybe... just maybe... Maybe I'm in a different world. _He frowned at the thought. _Whatever it is, there was still a lot of work to be done back home. Yeah, we brought about peace after beating Madara, but that was just the beginning. I don't have time to waste here. _

The door opened and another man, dressed in a suit, walked in and sat in front of him.

"Sir, do you understand me?"

_Oh, they brought a proper translator! _"Yes, I do."

The man folded his hands in front of him. "The officer here says you were just wandering around. He thought you might've been drinking illegally and become drunk."

_I should probably be careful with my words. You know, just in case._

"Drunk? No, no, I'm not drunk. I was minding my own business when I got knocked out. Next thing I knew, I woke up in some alley. I was really confused and was trying to get my bearings."

"I see. Did you have any enemies that might want to do something like that?"

"No."

"Then we're at a standstill. Do you have any identification? Where do you live?"

"Sorry, but I don't even know where I am."

"Excuse me?"

"This is definitely not where I live."

[Maybe he was kidnapped.]

[And left in an alleyway with no injuries? Preposterous. And this is the first time I've seen such a Caucasian Japanese.]

[Maybe his parents are Americans stationed in Okinawa. Maybe the North Koreans kidnapped him because he's the son of the base commander or something. Maybe something happened and he had to abandon the poor bastard.]

[That's still pretty farfetched.]

_What are they talking about, I wonder?_

"At the moment, we are in Seoul, the capital of South Korea."

_Stay calm, stay calm. Pretend like you know where that is. _"South Korea... Really?"

"Yes."

_I've never heard of a village or country by that name. I still don't know whether I'm in my world somewhere or a different world altogether, but it would be dangerous to be rash about this. I should stay here and figure out where the hell I'm at._

"Rest assured, we will present you the proper reparations for what your erstwhile neighbors up north did to you."

Naruto scratched his head feebly. "Well, thank you for that, but I lived somewhere pretty remote. I don't think that I'd be able to find my way back home."

"I see."

[There goes your theory about Americans.]

The sergeant shrugged. [Maybe he's a descendant of the missionaries that went to Japan. As far as I know, the persecution of the Imperial government in the 20th century caused what was left of them to scatter around the nation.]

[Whatever the case, what are we going to do with this guy? If he has no identification whatsoever, then there's no way to send him back because he technically doesn't belong to Japan. Furthermore, he can't get identification here because he's not a native Korean.]

[Maybe he can get a visa.]

[I think that might be what we need to do. This is so troublesome.]

"Alright, this is what we'll do, mister..."

_Ehmmmm, should I go with my real name? Or a fake name... If this is my world somewhere, using my real name might help someone find me, but it might also mean someone might try to kill me or take Kurama... _

"Ehm, Uzuki Naoto."

_Speaking of that damn fox, I haven't heard his voice at all yet. _

"I see, mister Uzuki. This is what we'll do. We will have you apply for a visa so that you can stay in this country legally, for the time being."

"Okay."

"Do you have any money?"

"Oh sure, lots." Naruto dug through his back pouch and brought out a ryo. Ever since the near destruction of Konoha, he had begun carrying his life savings on his person for safety. All of his ryo were his savings converted into plates of near-solid gold.

The policeman gasped, [Is that-?]

Adjusting his glasses, the translator asked, "Is this real gold?"

"Yep. Real as real. Where can I exchange these?"

"There are places that specialize in exchanging gold with currency. It's my day off tomorrow, so I can show you where to go then."

"Are you sure with missing your day off like that?"

"Don't worry, mister Uzuki. I joined the police force because of my strict sense of morality, even though we aren't well respected even in our own country. I couldn't possibly leave you, who is so obviously lost, to fend for yourself. Now, this is what we'll do..."

xxxx

Through the assumption that Naruto came from a Western country, he was allowed to stay in South Korea under the visa waiver agreement, while he applied for the F-2 Residency visa to make the country his home.

Naruto spent the next six days wandering around the city, exploring it and figuring out where things were. The scale of the metropolis was far beyond what he'd ever seen or witnessed, and he often got lost for hours at a time, as he couldn't even read any of the landmarks on the map he'd been given.

At night, he slept in a shelter that the translator brought him to. Naruto kept a clone with a copy of the map and a clone under Henge no Jutsu trailing him. When he needed to get back to the shelter, he had the transformed clone dispel itself and relay the image of the street sign to the other clone, who figured out the directions and dispelled itself to give the right directions to the real Naruto. He was pretty proud of this clever set up, though the method was a one-time thing to get back properly.

It would've been nice if he could've made an army of clones to do that so that he wouldn't ever get lost, but the more clones there were, the more independent they became as they were possessed of less and less of his chakra.

At the end of the week, the translator finalized the rental process for Naruto's apartment. This magnanimous man even cosigned for the blond and paid the first month's rent. It wasn't very uncomfortable, as his old apartment back in Konoha was about the same, small size.

As Naruto waited for the F-2 results to come back, he studied a worksheet given to him by the translator and learned how to count to ten in Korean. He_ could_ probably manage to get by just using his fingers, but it'd be easier this way. Like the previous six days, he continued to take long walks around the city to figure out where everything was. Where to go to buy food, toiletries, and daily necessities.

On the matter of money, with the exorbitant price of gold following the global economic recession, he made a pretty penny out of exchanging his ryo for currency. If his calculations were correct, the money should last him roughly five years at minimum cost.

**1,000 won = 1 dollar (roughly)**

_Rent, 600,000 won. Utilities, 200,000 won. Food, 450,000 won. Total, 1,250,000 won montly. _

Of the utilities, part of it went to paying the internet. He'd marveled at it. They'd had computers and wireless transmissions back in Konoha, but the concept of connecting anywhere and with anyone in the world at the speed of light was boggling. First, Naruto spent a day figuring out how to make the computer's system settings become Japanese. Then, he dedicated a week to reading every wiki page he could get his hands to click. Everything from this world's history to modern pop culture.

In the end, he had to conclude that he was in an entirely different world. Really, all he'd had to do was look up the world map to confirm his worst fears. He still hadn't been able to speak to Kurama, so he suspected something might have happened to the bijuu during the trip that had brought him to this world. As far as he knew, Kakashi's Kamui only sent objects into an empty dimension, so with that option gone, he had absolutely no means of returning to his old world.

That meant one thing. He was stranded.

Realizing this, Naruto spent most of the next two days rolling around on the floor of the rented apartment in a combination of self-loathing and mild depression.

"Idiot! Idiot! I just _had _to pick up the most suspicious thing there, didn't I? Gahh!"

As he lay on his back and looked up at the ceiling, he tried to think of his next course of action.

_Okay, let's calm down and think rationally. I can't get home. I managed to find somewhere to live for the time being, but I can't speak the damn language here. That probably means I won't be able to find a job. No job means no money, and no money means no living. Not living equals death. And death means I'll never find a way home, if one exists in this world at all._

Naruto stood up suddenly and walked to a wall, wanting to test something. Gingerly, for fear of falling on his head, he placed a foot on the wall. And then the other, and the other. Soon, he was standing on the ceiling, his feet sticky with chakra.

_Right, I can still use chakra, so I'm still a badass shinobi. This place seems really peaceful, which probably means I won't be able to find a legitimate job with my ninja skills. I don't really want to kill people for money either... _

He turned to the budget desktop he'd purchased from a used-electronics sale. Browsing the Japanese Wikipedia idly, Naruto continued to look up and absorb information vital to survival in this new world. Weapons technology, social media, major world powers... Naruto sighed. If only he'd landed in the neighboring nation of Japan who spoke the same language that he did, his situation would be a lot simpler.

As he looked through a section about modern methods of military training, the virtual reality system they used caught his attention. The VR system could simulate different existing landscapes or create brand new ones, and the use of VR technology to place a living, breathing person into an artificial 'world' sounded interesting.

_I wouldn't have minded having something like that back home, using that to do a bunch of my training instead of being run ragged. _

Naruto read through the page on virtual reality, which ended with a paragraph detailing the rise and success of the first true virtual reality video game. What a video game was, he didn't know, so he read up on that too.

_Huh, so you can play this... video game and it would come out on a monitor like this? Maybe I wouldn't have been so bored and become the king prankster if we'd had video games in Konoha, hehe. _

Again, the end of the video game section talked about that virtual reality game. From what he read about it in its respective wiki page, it simulated a fantastical world. It was strange that in a world seemingly devoid of the supernatural, people had an irresistible draw to it. The ability to live out one's dreams and fantasies. This was the driving force behind the conception and creation of _the _virtual reality MMORPG of the century.

**Royal Road! Make your dreams come true! Explore a brand new world and make your name in history!**

Frankly, this constructed world seemed closer to his own than the one he was living in right now.

_That's pretty dang cool, but I don't have the time to play games when I'm worrying about my continued survival here. It's not like I can steal for a living... I mean, I technically _can_, but it's a matter of principle. _

Naruto was about to leave the page when he noticed a statement about the game.

**The first to conquer the continent of Versailles will receive prize compensation of 10% from Unicorn Corporation's sales for one month.**

Naruto paused, looking up the statistics for the game. As _the _largest and most popular MMO on the market, the game claimed 75% of the world's video game market share. It had a player base 100 million strong, and growing. The subscription cost per month was 300,000 won (300 dollars). 10% of that would make him an instant billionaire. He salivated at the thought.

Now, he'd never lacked in money. How else did he pay for Ichiraku's ramen nearly every single day? But did he ever have enough to live with more than just the basic necessities for living? No.

Though tempting, the chances that he could beat the millions of other players to conquer the continent were slim, even with all of the advantages his experience brought him. But, interest peaked, he decided to look up whether money could still be made using alternative methods. What Naruto found was the thriving real-money trade of equipment within video games, and Royal Road in particular.

That was when Naruto knew what he had to do.

… _This is probably my best shot at making some money. There are other ways, I'm sure, but I have no idea how and where to find them in a world I'm unfamiliar with. No, this would be the safest method, since it says here that the language for this Royal Road is international. _

"..."

_Yeah, I need money to live, and I need to be alive to get back home. I'll do it. I'll make money off this game, and I'm going to enjoy doing it!_

xxxx

Of the 82,000,000 won he'd received at near-market-price for his gold, 10,000,000 of it went into buying and installing the capsule required to play the VRMMORPG. And the subscription cost was 300,000 won monthly. These additional costs would bring down his ability to live by roughly 1 year. Now resigned to his fate, he invested towards his long-term future.

_It took two weeks for the capsule to deliver, but I haven't just been sitting around. I know my way around the vicinity of the apartment, and I've been studying up on Royal Road and money making through the internet. I learned that anyone can sell things, because people across the entire spectrum are always in need of items, but only the most dedicated players can find the rarest loot to sell for the highest price. And I am anything if not dedicated, because if I don't make money off of this, I'll end up starving and homeless! But! I don't have any technical skills apart from fighting and killing and stealing, this is all I can do for a living. And live I will! Let's do it!_

He entered the capsule and booted up the monitor. These past weeks hadn't been spent uselessly. On top of everything else he'd been doing, he'd also learned the basics of employing modern technology. They used to say he was a dunce and a reject, but look at him now!

::::

**Connect to Royal Road**

**Yes - No**

::::

"Yes."

Everything around him blacked out as the universal voice recognition software accepted his answer.

::::

**The scan of your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account?**

::::

"Yes!"

::::

**Select the name of your avatar.**

::::

_Hmm, something cool. I want to be the coolest, strongest guy there. Obviously being the coolest and the strongest mean I'll make the most money. Hmm... _

He'd studied up on the nature of MMORPGs and went skimming through dozens of books at the public library for cool sounding names.

"Veritas."

The latin word for truth.

_My way of the ninja is my truth. Even in this world, I'll stay true to myself, even if I can never go back home..._

::::

**Select your gender from male, female, or neutr-**

::::

"Male!"

_There is NO way I am picking neutral for a gender._

::::

**Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine-**

::::

"Human."

_No brainer. Other races could be interesting, but I'm me. _

::::

**You may alter your appearance within certain limitations.**

::::

"I think I'll stick-" On second thought, he twiddled with a bit of his hair. He'd always wondered what it'd be like to be a brunette. "Hair to black, rest as is."

::::

**Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road. What you do in-game will influence your choice of classes and how your stats grow.**

**Select a city and kingdom you want to start.**

**Brent Kingdom**

**Kallamore Kingdom**

**Keurion Kingdom**

**Ledern Kingdom**

**Lootun Kingdom**

**Meda Kingdom**

**Rhodium**

**Ritten Kingdom**

**Rosenheim Kingdom**

**The British Confederacy**

**Thor Kingdom**

**Uto Kingdom**

::::

The list went on and on, expanding to show all the cities and villages within each kingdom, as well as individual city-states.

_The citadel sounds like a cool place. Obviously befitting of a cool person like myself._

"The Citadel of Serabourg, Rosenheim Kingdom."

::::

**Welcome to Royal Road, where you can carve out your own adventure in this wondrous land of magic and chivalry.**

::::

And then, with a flash of light, he found himself in a gigantic city, surrounded on all sides by player characters and non player characters, all going about their business. Hawking wares, forming parties, and doing menial quests. Some people even lay about sleeping.

_So this is the world of Royal Road... It's so, _lively_, I like it. _

Now that he was in Royal Road, he almost forgot about all the hardships he'd endured to get this far. In the beginning, browsing the internet had been slow as he learned to type properly without looking at the keyboard. He remembered moaning that it'd been easier learning how to use kunai and shuriken than to write properly.

Not only that, the day he'd spent trying to change the system language on the computer had been a cruel session of trial and error to figure out what to click and what to press. Just as difficult was what came after: Looking up information about the mechanics of Royal Road. What came up were thousands, tens of thousands of newbie guides, for players just like him. Vital information, such as the necessity of eating and drinking, despite being a video game, how to create a party and add friends to a buddy list, easy ways to make money or what starting towns would be good for certain classes. But the sheer volume of information often proved to be counterproductive, with lots of repeated information that he had had to sift through.

One thing of amazing note was that time in Royal Road passed four times as quickly as it did in real-time. Four weeks in-game amounted to one week in reality. The marvel of being able to spend even more time enjoying himself than he was spending in real life was like a godsend to the naturally lazy Naruto. However, one could not leave the city for the first four weeks, a sort of transitional period forcing new players to learn about the game or returnees to prepare for the end of the four weeks. Being Naruto, he just couldn't sit still with this fantastic world around him.

Tall, ornate buildings were erected all around him. A multitude of colorful players and non player characters alike filled the city with vigor and brightness. Every so often, someone dressed just like him would appear next to him with a dull flash. He received smiles from higher leveled players, reminiscing about their own newbie days.

Suffering from sensory overload, he walked in a daze trying to take everything in.

By chance, he heard two players discussing methods to become stronger.

"I just can't beat those mobs, no matter how hard I try, and I can't afford new equipment."

"Did you try joining a party?"

"I did, but I was only slowing them down. I felt like a leecher."

"Well, leeching isn't bad, per se."

"It makes me feel terrible and week."

"Well, you could always try the Training Hall. I heard every few hours you spend there you get a stat increase."

"Few hours? Are you crazy?"

"Well, theoretically if you spend a long time in there you'd have a huge stat lead compared to your peers."

"Theoretically. But what kind of crazy would sit in there for weeks and weeks doing the same thing over and over and over?"

He'd heard enough.

_Cool people are strong. Strong people are cool. And I can only be strong if I have more stats!_

So he headed to the Training Hall to ostensibly train. Walking felt completely natural. His virtual body acted as smoothly and quickly as his real body did, to an extent. Pulling up his stats window, he noted that every stat was very, very low.

::::

**Character Name: Veritas**

**Alignment: Neutral**

**Level: 1**

**::**

**Class: None**

**Title: None**

**Reputation: 0**

**::**

**Health: 100**

**Mana: 100**

**Strength: 10**

**Agility: 10**

**Stamina: 10**

**Wisdom: 10**

**Intellect: 10**

**Leadership: 5**

**Luck: 5**

**::**

**Attack: 3**

**Defense: 0**

**::**

**Magic Resistance**

**Fire: 0%**

**Water: 0%**

**Earth: 0%**

**Black Magic: 0%**

::::

As his stats grew higher, he'd be able to perform more and more superhuman feats of strength and agility. Try as he might, he could run no faster than a normal person, even if in real life he still had the physical ability to climb walls and run at speeds comparable with motor vehicles.

_This is really going to affect how I fight, _he realized quickly. _Stats, stats. I need stats. _

He entered the Training Hall and immediately caught the eye of the instructor, a large and foreboding Orc. Veritas marveled at the man's size, his rippling muscles, and his green skin tone as he approached.

"Young adventurer, I presume you have arrived at the Versailles continent very recently."

This was his first experience of the game's artificial intelligence, and it was impressive. This wasn't even a shadow clone, a near-perfect copy, mind and body, of a person. This was a construct, a creation of human hands and minds to imitate them in thought and action. A true artificial intelligence, he read, acted just like a normal human being. They began with nothing and learned through experience and application.

"Yes, yes I am."

"You shall find sword training absolutely necessary when you come to confront monsters. Do you need my guidance? I tell you, take any unattended scarecrow and strike him in any way you want. A wooden sword is placed in front of a scarecrow, and it is all yours."

"Thank you, I don't need any guidance."

"Godspeed."

He looked in and saw a sizable amount of people attending to the scarecrows. Most were practicing their skills on the dummies, but he saw one in particular beating away furiously at the scarecrow in front of him. Methodologically, strike by strike, without pausing, he beat away over and over.

_But gods, does that look mind numbing. But if that's the best way to raise my stats, then that's what I'm going to do. If there's one thing I can be proud of, it's my concentration and stubbornness!_

He decided to stand next to the other player as a form of consolidation through a common goal. Veritas looked at the stance of the man next to him as he swung away, noting the position of his sword and how he swung it, how he breathed in as he raised it and breathed out explosively as he brought it down. It was obvious just from looking that the other player knew quite some swordsmanship.

_Might as well take this time to learn it myself. I'll be damned if I get back home and I'm no stronger or wiser. I'd be the laughingstock of the village! Disappear for a few years, come back to find everyone stronger than me. I'll never become Hokage that way!_

Copying the stance and adjusting it slightly for comfort, he too began swinging away.

…

Within an hour, he felt like fatigued, and within two, his arms felt like they were set alight. But whenever he thought about stopping, he thought back to his good friend Rock Lee, about the pains of his circumstances and the ferocity of his training to reach for his dream. He never gave up, and became one of the best taijutsu masters of the village. If he gave up from something like this, from just swinging a sword for two hours, he'd never be able to show his face in front of that genius of hard work.

Every so often, after ridiculously long periods of time, the player next to him would stop swinging, check his stats, then leave the game for a period of about four hours. This he judged to be the time when he slept. But before he left, without fail, he would look to the side at Veritas, who had stood their by his side also swinging away. He could feel, somehow, that he was being appraised positively for his determination to become stronger.

_And, well, to be honest, the physical exertion of swinging the sword constantly is still a bit better than being spiritually exhausted as well, back when I did that Rasengan training. And it's a lot better than having my skin flayed off by Kurama's chakra, ugh._

Every time his stats went up by a point, he felt slight changes. Stronger, faster, more vital. The system had said that his actions would influence his stat points. As such, swinging the sword lead to rises in Strength, Agility, and Vitality. As he swung mindlessly, his body slowly becoming ingrained with the memory of and ability to swing without conscious thought, he tried to think about a class he wanted. Certainly, it might be fortuitous to be a class similar to a ninja, where he could exhibit extraordinary physical capabilities while blowing away people with magic, or ninjutsu.

Ttiring!

::::

**Agility rises by 1 point. (+1 AGI)**

**Level Up: Sword Mastery [1]**

Increases Attack Power with a sword. (+10% ATK)

Increases Attack Speed with a sword. (+3% ATK SPD)

::::

He stopped swinging to sit and eat. As a beginner, he had started with ten pieces of rye bread and a canteen of water. The game manual said that he should eat every five hours, and so he did, chewing on the stale bread, wishing for ramen or something better. Of course, he didn't eat the whole thing, that would be ridiculous. This was a video game, so eating a bit would raise his Satisfaction enough so that he wouldn't die of virtual starvation. It was a curious thing, to feel hungry even though his real body wasn't hungry. To feel fatigue even if his real body was lying in a capsule all day.

Veritas had been swinging for four days, or one day in reality. For twenty-four more days, he'd have to swing until he could finally be 'let off the leash,' figuratively, to go out into the wild and slaughter whatever he could get his hands on, and finally wash himself of this repetition. He checked his food supply.

_Two bread gone. At this rate, I'll be out of bread by day twenty. I won't have food for four days, that is troublesome... Maybe I can beg for it, but... Cool people don't beg! So then how do I get my hands on some food? Well, I'll think about that later, when the time comes. Cool people are strong, and to be strong I need to keep training!_

Every so often, some of the players who had seen him when he first entered came to test their skills out on the dummies. Some would look at him in respect for his willpower, and yet others would shake their heads in disbelief that someone would be dull enough to seriously follow the other mindless player into swinging day-in, day-out. He didn't mind. People were entitled to think what they want, but when reality slapped them in the face, it wouldn't matter what they thought. What was right was right. What was true, was true.

And what was right, was being strong. And cool. Being smart and handsome would be nice too, but those were secondary objectives.

On the matter of people talking about him, however, something he found very convenient was the game's auto-translation feature. Although the system language was set to Japanese, obviously other players around the world wouldn't speak the same language as him. Fortunately, Unicorn Corporation, the company that developed and updated Royal Road, had gathered all its resources and expertise to perfect an auto-translation software that was the equal of any professional translator. So when other players spoke, he heard it in his native language.

Oh, the wonders of technology!

He kept up the pace, because the more he trained before the four weeks were up, the stronger he'd be when he could finally leave the city and go hunting for monsters.

At about the time three weeks had passed, he was approached by the player who had swung swords next to him for the entire time. Courteously, Veritas stopped swinging his sword and faced him.

"You, I can see it in you. You know the hardships of money."

He did not deny it; He'd had far too much trouble being a hated orphan that had to fend mostly for himself.

"I commend your willpower for making it this far."

"The same to you," Veritas replied, grinning. "I'll just be glad when my four weeks are up."

He nodded. "My name's Weed. Maybe one day, we'll meet again."

"Veritas, and likewise."

And so he watched his fellow leave the hall and never return.

_One more week to go, with three days of food left. Four days without food._

As it happened, as he continued to swing that day, a giant of a woman entered the Training Hall, her size naturally gaining her the attention of nearly everyone inside, including Veritas. Not only was she big and tall, but he could also tell that she possessed tremendous strength. Maybe not as much as some of the girls in his village, but that was a pretty unfair comparison to begin with.

He watched her walk up to the instructor and chat for a while.

_Huh, I guess there's things like this to. NPCs breaking the mold and doing things differently. Maybe there's some complex algorithm that governs the mistakes and deviations of the AI. _

Veritas turned back to swinging.

_After these past three weeks, I think I've gotten the hang of what muscles to use to properly swing the sword down properly for maximum force. Probably a long way from mastering how to swing, much less fight with a sword, but what the hell. It's a start. _

"Wow, my husband told me that you've been at it for three weeks."

Veritas stopped and turned to face the giant woman.

"Oh, hello. Your husband?"

"The instructor. Doesn't look like we could fall in love, does it?"

He looked between the two, the green-skinned Orc and towering Barbarian. "You two certainly make a unique pair."

"I don't usually come to the Hall, but he forgot his lunch at home."

"Ah, that would be unfortunate."

"I heard there was another one also training here. Did he leave?"

"Earlier today. Perhaps I'll meet him again, he certainly seemed determined to become strong."

"Before I go, I was wondering, what do you think about Blacksmith Mastery?"

"Blacksmiths, huh. Well, without them, we wouldn't have any weapons to fight with, or armor to protect us. And they can repair them too. I think they're indispensable."

She smiled, satisfied with his answer. "I think they're very important too, although my husband might think the crafting classes are beneath him. Without craftsman, we would never be able to get by."

"I think so too, from building houses to making food, making weapons to drawing maps, I think everyone is important in the larger scheme of things."

"I noticed you seem to be eying my husband's lunchbox. Low on food?"

"Oh! Uh, errr, yes, I am." Veritas flushed lightly at looking so longingly at the instructor's lunch, which gave off a tasty scent.

"How about we make a deal." She held out in her palm several silver coins. "I've been interested in a certain story for a while now. They say that, throughout history, the weapons of legend have been produced under a single method, under a line of teachers and students inheriting a certain smithing technique. I want to know if there's any grain of truth to this story."

::::

**Legend of the Legendary Weapons**

**A drunken blacksmith claims that the Legendary Weapons of the ancients all come from a single source: a secretive group of blacksmiths that pass down their skills from teacher to student. Shake down the drunkard and find out whether it is a truth or a tall tale.**

**Quest Difficulty: E**

**Quest Restrictions: ****Catch the eye of the instructor's wife as a star pupil of the Training Hall.**

::::

Veritas mentally whistled. He'd only heard stories about this. Special quests, which were only unlocked when certain prerequisites were met. Difficulty varies, but those who'd completed them all agreed that the rewards were worthwhile.

"I accept!" He stared greedily at the silver coins in the woman's hand.

::::

**You have accepted the quest.**

::::

"Very good, just as I expected. Here's a retainer fee of one silver." Of the many jingling coins in her hand, she dropped one into his own. At his crestfallen expression, she laughed heartily. "I won't leave you dry. You'll usually find the drunkard by the bar in the evening, but in the daytime, some people have said they see him heading to the furnaces."

Veritas looked unhappily at the silver coin in his hand.

"Cheapskate..."

Well, this didn't change the fact that he now had money to buy food with, but the way she had left him hanging had been unjust and cruel.

_I swear it here now, I'll make so much money that I won't have any idea what to do with it all! So that I never have to grovel for chump change, like I did just now! NEVER!_

xxxx


	2. First Steps

**Chapter 2: First Steps**

xxxx

Here's Chapter 2. As stated in Chapter 1, the reason he seems so intent on the game as to spend large amounts of time in it is that he's stranded with no way home, and he's in a foreign country whose language he doesn't know. Only through the advanced translation software of Royal Road can he truly interact with others on a face-to-face basis without needing a translator following him around.

xxxx

Veritas wandered through the streets, looking for the so-called furnaces. There were maps in Royal Road, but they had to be purchased from other entities. Especially for unexplored areas, player-made maps were essential in properly traversing through or hunting in these areas.

The problem was, he had no idea about what the instructor's wife had meant by furnaces. It wasn't until another thirty minutes passed while he went around blindly did he realize he could and should ask other players for help. Feeling highly embarrassed by that oversight, he picked the nearest person who didn't wear the same seedy-looking newbie outfit as him.

"Excuse me, do you know where I can go to find the furnaces?"

"Oh! New to the game, are you?"

"Unfortunately," admitted Veritas.

The other person pointed to the northwest. "The hearths are over there, with the smoke and ash. You can't possibly miss it, the way it smells like ash and metal. It'll be the building with the big chimney sticking out of it, it sticks out like a sore thumb."

"Thanks!"

He soon found himself in front of a large, brick building exhuming copious amounts of black smog. He stepped in to find a medley of people gathered around the large furnace inside.

"What's going on?" he wondered aloud.

The nearest person turned to him. "You don't know what the furnaces are for? New to Rosenheim, are you?" He gestured at the group of people. "Without a furnace, you can't extract metals from raw ore or refine and purify metals for better quality. The larger the furnace, the better the results."

"Then, all these people are blacksmiths?"

"Yessir, the whole lot of them. It's a pretty lucrative business you know, if you'd only put in the effort."

"Speaking of blacksmiths, I'm looking for a blacksmith that drinks a lot. I heard I might be able to find him here."

At the mention of the drunkard, the blacksmith's expression turned dark.

"Is... there something I should know about that person?"

"What can I say? He's a first-rate failure of a blacksmith, who couldn't even forge a sword properly. The only things he's good at are gossiping and lying through his teeth. Yet, he's always drawn back to the Hearth and the Smithy. Though he is the worst blacksmith I've ever seen, I cannot deny his love and passion for our noble profession."

"I think I can sort of understand how that might feel, to constantly fail at something you want to do." He thought back to his days during the Academy. Being the class dunce, the reject, the last place, he'd nevertheless always gotten back up and kept trying. No matter what anyone said, he'd wanted to become a splendid shinobi. It was the same with Lee, who had been told that, without ninjutsu or genjutsu, it would be impossible to become a proper ninja. And yet, the two of them had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

_Talent? Genius? Pfah! If you can be a genius of hard work, you'll be able to make up for those deficiencies! _

"Well, if you want him, I can't help you. He might be in here, he might not, we generally lose track of time and presence while we focus on our work. Sorry that I can't help you much more than this."

"That's alright, just that was enough, thanks." _Enough my butt, you wouldn't even tell me his name._

Veritas scanned the interior, but he couldn't find anyone that looked even remotely drunk. He might be able to catch a whiff of alcohol if he walked close enough, but that might bother the blacksmiths and put them in a bad mood. The last thing he wanted to do was get thrown out for obstructing their work and then resorting to finding a drunk in a haystack of other drunks.

_Crud, how am I supposed to find out where he is? Think. Think! … I got it, I should provoke him. That saying about sticks and stones is complete bullshit, and I would know. Words can hurt like a knife wound. _

"What the heck, I come here looking for some answers about old weapons, and I can't find anything about it. That stupid drunk must be a complete hack, what a waste of time to believe his lies!" Veritas said loudly, making sure to be heard by everyone in the building. "The other blacksmiths were right, what a useless, talentless gossiper!"

Although the blacksmiths were distracted temporarily by his outburst, the NPC blacksmiths returned to their work when they realized who he was talking about.

"That was no lie!"

Elated that his target turned out to be here, he stepped up to an overweight blacksmith sitting at a corner of the furnace by himself and out of earshot of typical noise.

"You're pretty gutsy, kid, to insult me so clearly and loudly."

"You're pretty gutsy yourself to tell such a tall tale."

"I didn't lie!" the blacksmith growled. "It's reliable information I plied from a Master Blacksmith from Thor Kingdom. My entire savings went into feeding that stubborn dwarf enough drink to finally put him under and get that gem of information from him! My entire savings! I thought I'd be able to sell that information and make a profit, but everyone just thinks I'm making it up." He put his hands on Veritas' shoulders. "You, kid. You came because you thought there might be some truth to the story, right? That's why you came looking for me."

"That's right," lied Veritas, "I'm really interested in how legendary weapons are made. To be able to create a weapon of legend would mean being the greatest blacksmith in the world."

"Right? I tried to find out more, but the dwarf didn't know much else, other than that the rumor was true. He claimed that more information could be gotten at the innermost circles of Thor Kingdom."

::::

**Quest Complete!**

**Legend of the Legendary Weapons**

**The rumor is true, and there exists a blacksmith capable of forging legendary weapons, but not much more is known. **

**Reward: Return to the instructor's wife to claim it.**

::::

Veritas bade the blacksmith farewell and ran off quickly back to the Training Hall, until he realized he had no idea where he could find the instructor's wife. So he walked up to the instructor himself, who greeted him warmly.

"Welcome, young warrior! I hope your training has been going well?"

"Very well, sir, but I have a question I need to ask you."

He spread his arms wide in a gesture of friendliness. "Ask away."

"Do you know where I might find your wife? She asked me to run an errand for her, and I've just finished it..."

"Not a problem. We live on the other side of town in the residential district. It's the house with the green roof, it's the only one in the district. Say hello to her for me, would you?"

As he'd said, the house had been easy enough to recognize. Veritas knocked on the door and waited patiently. When the door opened he reported his success, but he did not get more money as he'd expected.

"Consider this a gift from me to you. This skill will help you a lot outside of combat."

::::

**Have learned Repair Skill.**

::::

At his disappointed expression, she continued, "Using this skill will help you save a lot of money by repairing your weapons and armor yourself. You'll also be able to repair whenever and wherever you want, without having to visit a Smithy. Trust me, you won't regret it."

He regretted it already. In Royal Road, the number of skills and stats a player could obtain were limited, and once gained, neither of them could be removed from their respective lists. What was more, combat classes tended to possess a greater amount of skills.

After waving goodbye, he trudged back to the Training Hall, cashing in his silver for one-hundred coppers and buying more rye bread on the way so that he wouldn't starve. Veritas sighed as he was again greeted by the view of rows and rows of training dummies. He was visibly disgusted at the idea of again returning to swinging that damn sword over and over. He recalled that even back in his youth, he'd never tried this hard even when trying to upstage Sasuke. Certainly, he'd tried hard, but the mind numbing difficulty of the Training Hall could be measured on a completely separate scale.

_Weed-nim finished this, and so can I. I can do this! Just... just one more week. One... more... week..._

For some strange reason, every time he said -san, it became a -nim in-game. Maybe it had something to do with being a Korean-originated game.

_Oh well, it probably means the exact same thing anyway. _

His only consolation was watching his stats grow ever higher as he swung. Every time a stat increased, he would remind himself of the advantages this would give him once he was finally freed from his cage to roam the lands.

::::

******Agility rises by 1 point. (+1 AGI)**

******New stat: Fighting Spirit**

Fighting Spirit

You can call on superhuman strength temporarily, or bring weaker monsters to their knees with the force of your eyes alone. You are prohibited from distributing stat points to this stat, as it rises spontaneously depending on the avatar's action, especially if you fight monsters for a long time, or often confront monsters stronger than your current level.

**Agility rises by 1 point. (+1 AGI)**

**Strength rises by 1 point. (+1 STR)**

**New stat: Endurance**

Endurance

You are likely to use less stamina in action. You are prohibited from distributing stat points to this stat.

**Stamina rises by 1 point. (+1 STA)**

::::

And, at long last, he was finally done. He knew instinctively that he had completed the Training Hall's training, a sort of buzzing of his skin. The instructor approached him not long afterward.

"Good job, Veritas-nim."

"Yes, yes it was."

"Ha! I can imagine. Very few have the patience and will to complete the Basic Training Program. Fewer still will have what it takes to finish the Beginner Training Program."

"There's... there's more of these?" Veritas looked utterly aghast at the prospect.

"Yes, though I do not know where they are located. What is known, however, is that those training programs cannot be accessed without first having completed the prerequisite programs." The instructor removed a sword from his belt and held it out. "Congratulations on completing the program, Veritas-nim. This sword is awarded to those who complete the Basic Training Program, a mark of their effort. Use it well."

"I will, thanks." Veritas took the sword and examined it, bringing up an item stat window.

::::

**Hard Iron Sword**

**Durability: 54/54**

**Damage: 10-14**

**Awarded to those who complete the Basic Training Program. This widely-used long sword is better than basic type weapons that are available in a blacksmith's workshop. **

**Restrictions:**

**Strength: 40.**

**Vitality: 35.**

**Attributes:**

**Strength +10.**

::::

_The damage seems kind of low, doesn't it? Not that I have any other weapon to reference it with, but it seems low. _

"By the way..." The instructor coughed, "Have you chosen a class yet, Veritas-nim?"

"No I haven't. Why?"

"You trained with the same kind of fervor and dedication as Weed-nim, who trained beside you for the majority of your time here. I can see that you have a warrior's qualification. Normally, one must pass a test at the Warrior Guild to become a Warrior, but with my recommendation you can bypass the test. So, are you interested in becoming a Warrior?"

::::

**Becoming a Warrior**

**The instructor believes you have what it takes to become a splendid Warrior. Go to the Warrior Guild and become a Warrior.**

**Quest Difficulty: E**

**Rewards: Warrior class.**

**Quest Restriction: Must have completed the Basic Training Program.**

::::

Veritas scratched his neck as he considered the offer. _If I become a Warrior, I'll probably be able to fight well. On the other hand, I won't be able to use magic, or ninjutsu. Then again, I read that I have the freedom to change classes again when the opportunity shows up. But then, classes affect stat growth..._

"I'd like to become a Warrior, instructor."

::::

**You Have Accepted The Quest.**

**You have received ****Instructor's Recommendation**.

::::

"Splendid! I'll be looking forward to hearing of your exploits someday, Veritas-nim. Good luck on your journey."

Veritas left the Training Hall and did not look back. Glad to be out and itching to fight, he headed to the Warrior Guild – the conspicuous building in the center plaza with a huge axe-shaped sign on the front – as quickly as possible. As he walked up the stairs, he noted how packed the building was compared to some of the others. In particular, the crafting guilds looked a lot emptier from the outside. Why was that? He nudged the nearest person, who thankfully was more than willing to offer advice.

"Why do the crafting guilds look so empty?"

"Oh, that. The craftsman classes have the weakest combat ability. They don't get any bonus stats like combat classes do. Also, their class skills are very difficult and time consuming to raise. People simply don't have the patience to stick with a craftsman class, and being weaker doesn't help at all."

"Ohh. Thanks."

"Not a problem."

As crowded as it was outside, the inside of the Warrior Guild was even more packed with newbies changing classes and returning quests, and experienced players exchanging information and taking hunting requests from the Quest Board. Hunting requests are repeatable quests that offer lower rewards than normal quests in exchange.

Scanning the crowd, he picked out the grizzliest looking swordsman and decided he must be the trainer.

"Hello, I'd like to become a Warrior."

The swordsman grunted. "You have to prove that you have what it takes to become a Warrior."

"I have proof." Veritas handed over the recommendation.

"This... looks in order. Completing the Basic Training Program is impressive. Very well, I'll let you become a Warrior."

::::

**Class Change!**

**You can convert to the class Warrior. If you accept it, you can gain the ability to wield an assortment of weapons and armors unique to the class tree.**

**Do you want to convert to Warrior?**

::::

"Yes."

Ttiring!

::::

**Quest Complete!**

**Becoming a Warrior.**

**You have given the instructor's recommendation to bypass the testing period of trainee Warriors.**

**You have become a Warrior. **

**Strength rises by 10 points. (+10 STR)**

**Stamina rises by 10 points. (+10 STA)**

**New Stat: Fortitude**

Fortitude

You take less damage from enemy attacks.

**New Skill: You have learned Mighty Blow**

Mighty Blow

By tensing the body at the moment before swinging, a more powerful attack can be used to deal 130% damage.

::::

"Awesome."

He'd changed classes, gained some stats and skills, and his four weeks of confinement were up. Now, sporting a decent weapon and new class, he could finally do what he'd been wanting to do ever since he booted the game up.

Finally, he'd be able to fight. Naturally, the very next thing he did was leave Serabourg from the closest exit.

Veritas breathed in deeply, smiling. Before him lay a vast field full of monsters and other players. Well, to call them monsters was exaggerating. Rabbits, raccoons, and foxes. Tiny animals that couldn't possibly ever be larger than knee height. Riding on a new-experience high and emboldened by the weak appearance of the monsters, he strutted confidently towards the nearest monsters.

When he got close, a rabbit leapt towards him. His eyes tracked the target in midair and his hands brought the sword to bear, his slash intercepting the rabbit perfectly. His attack nearly cut it in two, and it couldn't do much more than flail around from its wounds before Veritas brought the sword down to finish the job.

_Like taking candy from a baby. _

Noticing that the rabbit had dropped an item, he stooped to pick it up, gaining a rabbit pelt. Given his amazing poverty, Veritas decided that from then on he should strive to pick up everything he could grab his hands on. Money-pinching during his youth in Konoha had taught him the hard way the value of money. And Jiraiya and Tsunade's blatant spending of his money had taught him never to trust others with his money.

Of course, this wasn't to say that he wouldn't spend money if he needed to, or simply felt like it. After all, he'd been famous – or infamous - as a big spender at Ichiraku Ramen.

Using his superior senses and reflexes, Veritas carved a swathe through the field, cutting down raccoons and rabbits left and right. Not long afterward, a clear _ttiring _sound interrupted his killing spree.

::::

**You have leveled up!**

::::

With his first level up came the ability to distribute bonus stat points. He promptly dumped them all into Agility.

But, lo and behold, being distracted by the notice, he didn't notice the fox until it was within attack range. Thankfully, his ninja-honed senses caught the whiff of danger and he jumped away from the fox's attack. Veritas performed a backhanded swing and struck the fox's midsection, but it shrugged off the attack and pushed away his guard with a surprisingly powerful swipe of its paws.

_It broke my guard?! Shit-_

When he saw the fox shift its weight to jump, Veritas brought his sword back and tensed his muscles. He calculated the fox's trajectory as it left the ground and brought the sword to bear.

_Mighty Bl-_

A sudden impact interrupted the skill use and, furthermore, knocked him into the incoming strike. A dull pain shook his body as he looked around to find himself surrounded by an assortment of monsters. He'd made one of the biggest mistakes a shinobi could ever make. He had failed to see underneath the underneath and had let his target cloud his judgment. He'd been too focused on the fox to notice that their fight had drawn the aggro of many other monsters.

Foxes were relatively weak monsters, but to a fresh out of the city player like him, they were deadly enough.

Even as he began sustaining a relentless stream of attacks from the huge mob surrounding him, the only reason he hadn't died yet was due to his training at the Training Hall, giving him bonus points to Health. Their eyes glinted maliciously as they drew in from all directions. Veritas dodged and weaved to the best of his abilities, but the difference between his skill and his character's stats soon began to take its toll, as his health ticked down bit by bit. He was only delaying the inevitable.

Then, his health finally dropped to zero and his vision began fading to black. His only consolation was in seeing an arrow sing through the air and drop the fox that had just finished him off.

::::

**You have died.**

**Died from loss of health.**

**Cannot log in for 24 hours.**

**Skills and levels will decrease as a result of player's death.**

::::

"Shit!"

Naruto, now officially registered as Uzuki Naoto, fumed. He'd made the most basic mistake that Genin are taught not to make. And now, he wouldn't be able to play for twenty-four hours, or four in-game days. Without any knowledge of the country's language, this was the only way available to him to make money. He didn't even have any of the technical skills required to perform blue-collar jobs.

"This sucks... Might as well do something in the meanwhile."

As he dressed to go out, he couldn't help but to marvel at the time distortion within Royal Road again. To be able to live another life at one-fourth of real speed was amazing. What it also meant was that people could play the game for a significant amount of time and still have enough time to go to school and work because of the difference in passing time. While he'd spent an entire month in Royal Road, only a week had passed in reality.

It was still dark, but the sun could be seen rising slowly over the eastern horizon. Running in the brisk dawn weather was refreshing and it almost reminded him of mornings in Konoha. He breathed in deeply, savoring the fresh – relatively speaking - air. Although pollution was rather high in the high density of urban Seoul, the air was freshest at the time when the least vehicles were going about.

Naruto ran for twenty kilometers, working up a light sweat. Shinobi were expected to run vast distances at speeds matching those of galloping horses or highway-bound vehicles, so something of this caliber was simple. Unfortunately, he could not run at speed without risking being seen by others.

_My body seems a bit heavier... I should work out more or something, find somewhere to keep my skills and physique honed. I'd rather not turn into someone like Chouji if I somehow manage to get back home. _

The sun lit up the surroundings as dawn became morning and the citizens of Seoul began to wake up and go about their duties. Business began opening and the first cars and taxis appeared on the street. Naruto found it somewhat soothing to watch the metropolis wake up. He'd enjoyed doing the same in Konoha, sitting on top of his father's statue and watching the village. Speaking of Konoha, if Kakashi ever saw the glaring mistakes he'd made so recently in Royal Road, he probably would have been severely berated and told that that was why he had yet to make Chuunin, despite having the raw strength of a Kage.

_Let's take a short break, _he decided, and sat down at the nearest bench. _Haaa... Where can I possibly find a good place to train in a city like this? _

Unable to find a satisfactory answer after thirty minutes, he filed the question away for a later date and stood back up. Time to go back home, and maybe hit the market on the way. The farmer's markets located on the fringes of Seoul had the best deals and one was within walking distance of his apartment.

_Well... I guess I can practice my chakra control while I wait for my twenty-four hour lockout to end, I guess. _

xxxx

"Log in."

The blackness around him brightened and took shape. Once again, Veritas appeared in the main square of Serabourg. He looked down at himself to find himself wearing tattered clothes. Not only that, he was again level 1. He'd done some searching on Japanese Royal Road sites. Skill progress lost on death could not be recovered except through application. Durability of clothing lowered upon receiving damage and death, while durability of weapons lowered upon attacking and blocking. Furthermore, when a player dies, a number of items would drop from his body. Unfortunately, one of these items was his sword.

So, he was weaponless and essentially armor-less. He didn't even have a hammer to appropriate repairs for armor and weapons, much less the Tailoring skill required to repair his newbie clothing.

When Veritas appeared back at the field where he'd died, in the futile hope that someone hadn't already picked up his stuff or that they hadn't despawned, he was soon approached by two others, one boy, one girl. Almost as if they'd been waiting for him.

"Hey, you're the one that died here four days ago, right?" He was of a fair appearance and the friendly smile on his face seemed to belong there. His dark brown hair was a bit long, reaching down to his jaws and parted down the middle, and similarly colored eyes shone brightly with vigor.

"That's right."

The boy, who had a bow slung on his back, held out a familiar sword. "You're brand new to the game, right? I figured I should be a good citizen and hold onto this for you. We tried to save you at that time, but we couldn't make it in time before you died."

Veritas' eyes lit up and he donned an expression of utmost gratitude. "You're a lifesaver, friend!"

"How did you get your hands on such a weapon, anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

The girl spoke this time, "The beginners' wooden weapons have average attack stats of between 2 to 4. I've heard that most people don't even get iron weapons until a few dozen levels. Between wooden and iron weapons are copper and bronze weapons."

The girl was on the pretty side, with sleek black hair tied into a ponytail and chocolate-colored eyes backing up a soft face. She, too, had a friendly smile on her face and also exuded an aura of easygoingness.

"Oh, well, I got it by completing the Basic Training Program."

"The what?" both asked.

"I swung at a dummy at the Training Hall for the four weeks I couldn't leave the capital."

The boy laughed, at a loss for words. "Wow. Just, wow. That's amazing, although in my opinion, for swinging for four weeks, I'd say even an iron sword isn't worth the trouble."

"You might be right," admitted Veritas. "I thought I was going to die of boredom and frustration several times."

"Oh, by the way, I guess we forgot to introduce ourselves. I'm Gunter and she's Kirhi."

"Nice to meet you..."

"Veritas, and the pleasure is mine."

Kirhi smiled mischievously. "Just so you know, the only reason we didn't just take the sword for ourselves is because we can't use it."

"That's... good to know..."

"Gunter's an Archer and I'm a Mage. What about you?"

"Warrior."

"That's perfect!" Gunter extended a hand. "We're both ranged classes and not having a tank was really wrecking the efficiency of our hunting. Would you like to join our party?"

"Well... Wouldn't I hold you down, being level 1 and all?"

"Well, we _are_ level 10, but you should be able to make up the difference with that sword and our ranged support. From what we saw four days ago, you're quite agile, so I have no doubt you'll be fine with us here."

"Okay then, I accept, Gunter-nim."

"I'll send you the invite then."

_Ttiriring. _

::::

**Gunter has invited you to the party. **

**Would you like to join?**

::::

"Yes."

::::

**You have joined the party.**

::::

"Great, then we can get started immediately. I can't ask you to tank, given the state of your armor, so can you grab the attention of a group of monsters and hold them off while we prepare our area attacks? I'll give you the signal to run when we're about to fire."

"I can do that, sure. Besides, I've got a bone to pick with these guys."

Kirhi brandished her wand while Gunter nocked an arrow.

"Ready whenever you are, Veritas-nim."

"I've been ready since the moment I died. I'm going to teach them what hell is like, _personally_." Veritas drew his iron sword and bared his teeth, his eyes wild and alight with the desire for vengeance. "Here. I. GO!"

xxxx


	3. Cry Wolf

**Chapter 3: Cry Wolf**

xxxx

Holy butt, figuring out the stats was harrowing. That is all.

Vitality has been changed to Stamina. Sustenance has been changed to Endurance. Endurance has been changed to Fortitude.

I also updated the formatting in Chapter 1.

xxxx

This time, instead of charging straight through and slaughtering everything in his way, Veritas circled around the very edge of the mobs' detection radii and herded them together expertly. This was Konoha's premier prankster at work. He'd learned how to lead wild chases out of necessity to escape the various Genin and Chuunin sent to capture him, and he was making use of his expertise here. The monsters were nowhere near as agile as your average Chuunin, or as intelligent for that matter, making his job very easy.

"Now!" cried Gunter.

Veritas backflipped consecutively, creating a distance of about five meters in as many seconds. Before the monsters could give chase, a hail of arrows struck them as they were bunched up. Following that up, Kirhi lobbed a ball of lightning past his position. When the ball reached the center of the mob, it exploded, lancing them with chain lightning.

All in all, these abilities weren't intended for maximum efficiency, considering the amount of time it took to prepare them and the unfortunate side effect of being indiscriminate with targets. These sort of area spells seemed seemed more appropriate for a siege or battle, but the terrific burst damage of the skills did mean that mobs could be wiped in relative safety, just so long as the person leading the mob on didn't get caught up in the attack as well.

As the dust settled, Veritas could see that, while all the rabbits and raccoons had been exterminated by the combo attack, the foxes were still on their feet. Their gait looked unsteady though, and Veritas figured that at this point a single sword slash would be enough to finish each of them.

_Attack!_

This time with a fuller awareness of his surroundings, he tore through the monsters with ease. He still wasn't as fast or strong as he'd like, and his unfortunate death had taught him that his body was highly fragile. Also, these monsters were the lowest of the low, designed to strengthen newbies and prepare them for the challenges ahead. Veritas doubted all the monsters from this point on would be so predictable.

"That was very good, Veritas-nim," Gunter congratulated.

"I agree, you lead the monsters on really well." Kirhi scanned the field. "Looks like it'll take some time for the monsters here to respawn, so we should move to a new area."

Veritas looked up from viewing his stats window. That engagement had increased his level to 2 again and he was now 18% of the way to level 3.

_If I'd killed all the monsters, I probably would've gained something like three levels. _

Because of the nature of experience distribution in a party, the persons who did the most damage would get the majority of that exp. The only exception was in support classes, who would also receive bonus exp based on the heals, buffs, and debuffs administered. Essentially, the game was discouraging leeching by encouraging partying with like-leveled players and active participation in combat.

_I guess I'll grab a few more levels this way then suggest we do some more meaty fighting. _

And so, after three hours of mob nuking, the party took a break at the Serabourg Pavilion. This was where new players would appear as well as the crossroads to all the major sections of the capital. It was crowded, but in a good way. Veritas checked his level while appreciating the hustle and bustle of this lively city.

::::

**Character Name: Veritas**

**Alignment: Neutral**

**Level: 7**

**::**

**Class: Warrior**

**Title: None**

**Reputation: 0**

**::**

**Health: 840**

**Mana: 100**

**Strength: 60+10**

**Agility: 80**

**Stamina: 60**

**Wisdom: 10**

**Intelligence: 10**

**Fighting Spirit: 17**

**Endurance: 78**

**Fortitude: 4**

**Leadership: 5**

**Luck: 5**

**::**

**Attack: 21**

**Defense: 0**

**::**

**Magic Resistance**

**Fire: 0%**

**Water: 0%**

**Earth: 0%**

**Black Magic: 0%**

::::

He'd invested all the points he'd gained from leveling up into Agility. Each level up netted him five bonus points to distribute into stats, separate from passive stat growths affected by class and actions taken.

He'd gained forty stats of each of the three core melee stats, Strength, Agility, and Stamina through the Training Hall. Compounded with the twenty bonus points gained through the class change and the further ten points in Strength from his Hard Iron Sword, his stats were very impressive for his level.

130 extra stat points gained through the weapon and training equated to having the equivalent of twenty-six levels. Essentially, stat-wise, he was on par with a level 33 player.

_I just knew that it would come in handy, thank god. Good thing I didn't pussy out and kept going 'til the end just like Weed-nim. No pain, no gain!_

He had 4 points in Fortitude, and he vaguely recalled gaining them during the fight in which he died.

_Maybe the stat rises if I'm fighting while I'm in a tight spot, or if my health is really low. Or maybe it goes up when I take damage. I should look it up later._

His endurance stat had been building up during his training, and he figured it was a stat that rose when doing something repetitively.

_~tiriring~_

A clear sound played as a window appeared in front of him, displaying the whisper that Gunter had just sent.

Gunter: We've just turned in our quests. Can you meet us at the marketplace?

Veritas: Sure, I'll be there in five minutes, he whispered back, speaking into the system's voice recognition software, which then transliterated his speech into written word.

Looking down at his tattered clothes, Veritas could guess why he was being called to the market. He very well couldn't do any tanking with near-broken clothes. As he walked to the western ward of the city, where the combat classes' markets were located – whereas the eastern ward hosted the craftsman classes' markets – he tried to decide between cloth, leather, or metal armor.

_Mmm, metal armor would give me more defense to take more hits, but cloth and leather armor would have superior mobility and degrees of motion. All the ninja back home wore cloth armor for that purpose, but I think metal armor would look pretty awesome. I'd like a helmet with horns, and spikes on the armor! … But low level armor probably looks like crap. But still, I'd like to be awesome looking, so I might as well get used to wearing metal armor, or else I might mess up when it counts later on._

He met up with Gunter, who was waiting for him at the entrance.

"After we get you new armor, we have to go buy supplies for tomorrow, so Kirhi is looking for a place to stay in the meantime."

"Tomorrow? Why not tonight? It's a full moon out so it's not like vision would be much of a problem."

"Oh yeah, let me explain. At night, monsters are 50% stronger, but also give 30% more exp. So normally, it's not worth it to hunt at night unless you're exceptionally skilled or powerful for the level range of monster you're fighting."

"... Let's do it, Gunter-nim."

"Huh?"

"Let's hunt at night!" Veritas grinned, his eyes practically sparkling with anticipation.

_Finally, a chance to _really _test my skills!_

"Are you sure? You're still at a pretty low level."

Veritas understood that Gunter wasn't looking down on him, but was concerned for him. He was thankful for that, but he knew his own body better than anyone. If he thought he could do it, chances were he could, sooner or later.

"Don't worry, with some new armor, I should be good to go, even at night. Honestly, I'm really impressed with the combat ability of the Warrior class, although I'm a bit disappointed that I won't be able to learn magic," he lamented.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Gunter asked.

"I had a hard time picking between a Mage and a Warrior, you see..."

"Sorry, what I was trying to say was that once your Intelligence stat hits 300, any class can learn magic from that point on. You haven't _really _been locked out of using magic, but mage classes can obviously use magic from the very beginning, and will also have much higher intelligence and wisdom stats."

"Really?"

"Really." Gunter motioned to himself. "Do I really look that untrustworthy that I'd try to lie to you?"

"Ah, no, sorry if it sounded like that."

"No offense taken, Veritas-nim."

Veritas perused the armor selections, looking for the one that would be best for him. Some had level restrictions, and others had stat restrictions on top of that. In the end, he chose the Dull Copper Armor, a level 5 equipment. Buying a full set of armor meant that he'd just spent nearly all of his savings that he'd made while grinding.

After talking with the shopkeeper about armors, it had come to his attention that full plate armors were rare at lower levels because of how much Agility they reduced. The partial plate armor that he'd just bought covered pretty much covered his whole body, but full plate armor also, on top of that, protected the vital joints and had an underlying coat of mail to further increase defense. Underneath that could be worn leather and cloth armor to maximize a melee class' defensive stats.

"Veritas-nim, I've just finished speaking with Kirhi."

"What did she say?"

"She said that she's fine with trying to hunt at night. But!" Gunter emphasized the 'but' very heavily, "if it looks like it's getting too hairy, we'll all run away together. For safety's sake, I'll set some basic traps at a certain point that we can lead the monsters through to slow them down so we can escape."

"Alright, that sounds reasonable."

"At my skill level, the quality of traps I can place are wooden traps, and the duration of the traps are two hours. When I raise my Trapping skill, the duration should go up as well as the quality of traps I can place. Until then, this is really just a stopgap measure."

"Yup. Got it, Gunter-nim."

"Then let's go. Kirhi said she'd meet us at the entrance to the usual field."

Veritas decided to bring up his suggestion as they walked. "Gunter-nim, now that I'm properly equipped, I think we should try fighting the monsters in a straight up fight."

He was given a very pointed look. "Veritas-nim, you are still only level 7. Armor or not, these are night monsters we are talking about. I admit, you're a pretty fast, agile, and flexible person, but the monsters don't only gain strength at night. The nighttime affects _all _their stats, and that includes agility as well."

"Actually..." He decided he should mention the bonus stats he'd gotten from the Training Hall, "the thing is, I'm a lot stronger than I look."

"Oh?"

"I didn't only get this sword from completing the Training Hall's Basic Training Program, you see. I also got a boatload of bonus points from abusing myself with four weeks of mindless repetition."

"How many?"

He coughed and looked around before leaning in to whisper, "For-forty points to Strength, Agility, and Stamina."

"What?! Eight levels' worth of stats?!" his party mate exclaimed loudly.

"Shhh, shush!" Veritas looked around surreptitiously to see if anyone had been listening, but it seemed no one had. "Not forty points overall, but to each stat. Never mind that-"

"How can I _not _mind that, Veritas-nim?" Gunter demanded, "That is indeed a _boatload _of stats, that's... that's twenty-six levels' worth of stats!"

"I just don't want others to get wind of this, you hear? Not that most people could swing a sword for four weeks straight, but it gives us an advantage, doesn't it?"

"That it does, but wouldn't this be something worth sharing?"

Veritas shook his head. "More competition. Because my effective level is higher than my actual level, it means we can probably hunt at more dangerous hunting grounds, and when my level gets higher, I suspect we'd be able to go into hunting grounds far earlier than the rest of the players. Whether most people wouldn't be able to finish the training regimen isn't the problem. The problem is that those who do manage to finish it would be our direct competition for hunting grounds."

"I see what you're getting at, Veritas-nim. Although I can't really agree wholeheartedly, I'll go along with that for the moment." Gunter grimaced, the idea of keeping such a thing secret against his nature. "I'm sort of a goody two shoes, I've always shared my things with others whenever possible. I'm just that kind of guy."

"Heck, I'm a nice guy too, but sometimes there are things you just can't tell others."

"Let's ask Kirhi for her opinion first."

The two of them arrived at the gate and ushered Kirhi into a corner before relaying to her what Veritas had just told Gunter. She reacted just like Gunter had, although this time they were in a nondescript corner where no one would notice one of many parties in 'strategy meetings'. After that, Veritas explained his reasoning behind keeping the advantage of the Training Hall, four weeks and all, a secret."

"I agree," she agreed without hesitation.

"Kirhi..."

"Gunter," Kirhi said in a severe, almost mother-like tone, "this is our chance. If we stick with Veritas-nim here, we can boost ourselves faster than with any other regular party member. What's more, if we ever take the time and effort to finish the Training Hall's regimen, we'll be stronger too. I wouldn't gain much out of it except Health, but you have the same core stats as a melee class. You'd benefit from it just as much as Veritas-nim has."

"But..."

"But, nothing." She put her hands on her hips bossily. "You promised me, Gunter. You insisted I play Royal Road with you, and I had _one condition. _When I absolutely want... _need _you to do something, you said you'd do it. Didn't you?"

"Bu-I-... yes..."

Veritas winced as Gunter looked down at the ground, scuffing his feet in the dirt. It was almost as if he was getting reprimanded by his mother. It was one part embarrassing, one part shameful, and 100% awkward.

"Mm, sorry about that." Kirhi grinned. "I'm normally really friendly, but I always show this really ugly side of me when I'm around this childhood friend of mine."

Veritas grinned back with his foxiest smile. "Don't worry. To be honest, if you were friendly _all _the time, I don't think I could go to sleep at night for fear of getting stabbed in the back."

Gunter had to ask, "So then, how _did _you manage to die out there with those kind of stats?"

"I was being an idiot and got surrounded. It's my first time in VR so I wasn't completely used to moving my body like I do in real life, and I was wearing that dinky newbie outfit with no defense."

He nodded knowingly. "Ah, that _would_ do it."

"Hey, so, how about getting out there and killing us some night monsters, hm?"

"I'm up for that. Gunter, if we let Veritas-nim take the aggro, we should be completely fine. All we should need to do is fire at will."

"Whatever you say, my lord and master." Gunter rolled his eyes as he bowed deeply, at which Kirhi kicked him in the shins.

"No sarcasm allowed. Now let's go!"

The three of them set foot out of the open gates. There were far fewer players present, and none of them were solo farming. It was much too dangerous for the average player to fight alone at night, so when players did go night fighting, they did it in decent sized parties to minimize risks. The exp gains would be lowered overall by the addition of more people, but it beat sitting around for the sun to rise.

Their party, on the other hand, could hardly be considered average. Wielding the new knowledge that Veritas was more than capable enough, stat-wise, to handle the monsters that came out at night around the capital, the three ventured out with confidence.

Now armored, Veritas could fight without worrying about taking full damage from the monsters like he was before. He weaved in and out of mobs, slashing monsters with a reverse grip that allowed for accurate, fluid strikes at the expense of strength and reach. He dodged another swipe with a quick spin and used the centrifugal force to launch an immediate counterattack, killing the assailing fox.

Although he was armored, he made a very pointed effort not to get hit. Kirhi'd explained that because their party lacked a dedicated healer, the only healing they could do was out of combat. Taking a lot of damage in chip damage over time would lead to difficulties or even death if they couldn't find an opening to rest.

_I think I don't mind not having a healer though. This is good training for my reflexes and sensing ability. As long as I'm concentrating and have enough Agility, I can dodge the attacks. It's strange though, I'm wearing full armor but I don't feel constrained at all. I feel a little weighed down, but I've got the same degrees of freedom as I would not wearing armor. _

With him at the forefront slicing and dicing away, the party soon made short work of the monsters in the area just outside the gate. Slowly, they pushed outwards, towards the edge of the forest where higher leveled monsters resided.

It took two hours to reach the forest proper, fighting through dozens of monsters while focusing on not getting hit, while also dealing with new monsters spawning in behind them. It was harrowing, but by the time they broke through to the forest Veritas had gained a level.

As they rested near the forest's edge, Veritas felt that something was wrong. Somewhere, something or someone was emanating killing intent.

Trying not to make any sudden movements, he reached for his sword. As if on cue, the bird calls silenced and, apart from the noise of combat across the distance by other players, their immediate surroundings became void of noise.

"Scatter!"

Before either Kirhi or Gunter could digest what he'd said, the enemy leaped from the treeline and ran at them.

_Fast!_

The wolf jumped at him, which he'd already predicted. Veritas spread his legs and lowered his body closer to the ground, assuming a stable stance, as he prepared to draw the sword from its sheath in a crude imitation of the iaido style. As the wolf passed overhead, his upward swing caught it in the belly, while its claws caught him in the shoulder blade as it performed a midair somersault.

He looked to his health bar quickly, noting he was now 65 health points down.

_Looks like this one can fight._

"Get away from the treeline! More of them might be there!"

With Gunter and Kirhi moving out of the way, he could now focus completely on the wolf circling him slowly.

The wolf was fast, certainly. He had no trouble tracking the wolf in motion, but his body simply wouldn't react quickly enough to allow for a perfect kill. The wolf also possessed cunning. He'd never expected the wolf to switch tack so quickly and make as unorthodox an attack as a somersault strike.

He backed up slowly towards his party, trying not to gain the aggression of another wolf. The opening he created by breaking stance encouraged the wolf to renew its attack, charging at him once more.

Throwing away all pretense of any traditional stance combat, Veritas tossed his sword up and backwards into the air and ran towards Gunter and Kirhi. Calculating the trajectory of the sword and the approaching speed of the wolf, he estimated that he'd have to take another hit because he'd thrown the sword too shallowly. Just as the wolf jumped, he performed an immediate stop and backflipped. Grabbing the sword hilt as it fell, Veritas swung with an overhead strike while the wolf's claws struck his shoulder.

His health now at 395, he decided he should press the attack and ran at the wolf.

"Veritas-nim! Behind you!"

Ignoring Kirhi's cry, he front flipped and brought his sword down in a stabbing motion on the wolf's head with both hands.

::::

**Critical hit!**

::::

He immediately gained a level from the kill, but there was no time. He swung to the side blindly at the other presence. Without any line of sight, he missed while taking a gash to the side from a second wolf. He turned, but already the wolf was circling around him and closing for another attack. Veritas swung blindly again scoring a minor nick while taking a cut on his other side. From his position, he saw a third wolf exit the forest.

_Shit! Health is 265 and there's another one of those bastards coming this way!_

"Veritas-nim!"

Grasping the sword with all the strength he could muster, he swung with all his might behind it. The wolf's attack struck his chest and his Mighty Blow likewise, but the system did not register a kill. If he had to deal with two wolves at the same time, it would be trouble.

Then, as if his prayers had been answered, an arrow sung through the air and pierced the wolf in the eye. The time it had taken Gunter to carefully aim had been worth it, despite worrying that the shot might come too late.

_200! Exp at 82%, shit! If only I'd leveled up and gotten that bonus health!_

There was still some distance before the last wolf reached him, and during that period arrows and lightning bolts flew past him. The wolf zigged and zagged, taking some hits but dodging most with its agility.

_I can't let this drag out any longer. We need to kill this wolf and get the hell out of here before more show up. My only chance is to inflict a critical hit to a vital point and take it out in one blow or give it a wombo combo that it can't react to. _

The wolf stormed him, but Veritas couldn't find the right opening so he abandoned both offense and defense and focused entirely on dodging to buy more time. He rolled to the side as swiftly as he could, barely avoiding the swipe.

_Egads, looks like these wolves were meant to be hunted in parties even during daytime, much less by a three-man group at night when they're stronger by half!_

The wolf wheeled around for another pass, dodging more arrows and lightning.

_They really need to work on their aim! If it's come to this, I have to go _all out_. _

Despite being a programmed being, Veritas could feel that the wolf really did act like a real animal. If so, he'd gamble this fight on that suspicion, just as he'd done in times past and come out victorious. He took another hit while backing up more just to be safe.

::::

**Fortitude has risen by 1 point. (+1 FRT)**

::::

_Health, 135. Now, come at me, you beast!_

Sensing its prey to be on its last legs, the wolf came in at full speed, making no effort in dodging incoming spells and arrows. It already knew that if the one with the sword died, the rest would be easy pickings.

Veritas grasped the sword by the end of the hilt loosely and raised his arm. As Kirhi and Gunter watched, he threw the weapon, using all his knowledge and experience of throwing weapons to turn the sword into a fast and accurate missile. It struck the wolf in the shoulder, dealing heavy damage.

"He threw his weapon?!" Gunter loosed another arrow. "It worked, but now he has no weapon!"

Taking a deep breath, Veritas closed his eyes momentarily to gather his concentration. Just as the wolf reached him, he shifted to a stable stance and performed an uppercut with his dominant right hand. The impact to the wolf's jaw jarred its upper body, causing it to rise several inches. He squatted from that position then used an axe kick, first striking the same spot on the jaw with his foot and then bringing it down in a swinging motion to bash the wolf's forehead. Then he re-entered the stable stance and finished the wolf with a side punch, using the momentum of his moving body to strengthen the attack.

::::

You have leveled up!

::::

He breathed a sigh of relief when he received he level up, knowing that the fight had ended.

_I guess that's the good thing about this system, the moment you get exp is when you know you won. None of that 'I thought you were dead but you got back up' bullcrap. _

Veritas plopped down where he stood, feeling fatigued.

"That was amazing!" shouted Gunter as he ran to the collapsed Veritas with a health potion in his hands. "I didn't know you knew martial arts, Veritas-nim."

"Well now you do."

"Must be nice having a backup if you lose your weapon," lamented Kirhi, down about the fact that she had been effectively useless in the fight with the wolves.

"That aside..." Veritas grinned, "I suggest we stick with foxes and below until we all have the Agility we need to properly take on wolves."

"I second that motion. Kirhi?"

"No objections."

_I got a point in Fortitude that fight, huh? The message popped up when I took that hit that brought my health really low. So maybe I do get Fortitude if I fight while I'm at low health... Or maybe I needed to pass a certain threshold of damage taken._

While Gunter and Kirhi tended to his wounds, applying bandages and health potions, Veritas opened his stat window and pumped his bonus points into Agility.

_Hmm, I should buy some of my own healing supplies when I get back to the city._

"Right, we're all healed up. How are you on potions, Kirhi?"

"I've still got about twenty left. If we stick with the weaker mobs that should last us several hours."

"You up for more hunting, Veritas-nim?"

"For sure. Let's do this, guys."

And so, until the sun began to rise high in the sky, they hunted back and forth across the fields, leaving nothing in their wake. The monsters, they killed, and the dropped loot, they scooped up immediately. Because the strength of the monsters were a known quantity, they could afford to fight a little recklessly and go through their potions at a faster rate in exchange for faster exp gain.

At the end of their hunt, Gunter and Kirhi emerged at level 18 and Veritas at level 14.

Still putting all his points in Agility, he now had 125 points in the stat. With 35 more points in Agility than when they'd first tried their hand at fighting wolves, Veritas didn't doubt that he was now fast enough to hunt wolves alone, without needing to trade hits in the process.

With both Gunter and Kirhi needing to go about their daily lives, he'd been left to his own machinations, though not before they added each other to their friend lists.

_Really, it's so convenient that you can be online in Royal Road while you sleep in the capsule. You'd think that the mind might become fatigued by being active all day, but that doesn't seem to be the case. The technology of this world is awesome!_

Feeling like he should hunt a little more before logging off to train, Veritas stocked up on necessary supplies: bread, bandages, potions, and a hammer. The hammer had been particularly expensive, and he'd needed to buy it from the Smithy for twenty silver. A hefty investment, but when he'd looked at the repair costs for his battered armor – a whopping four silver – 10% of the forty silver that it had cost him to buy his armor – Veritas knew that he should absolutely repair his own equipment since he had the means to, lest he rack up huge repair costs over time. The hammer would increase the efficiency of repairs, allowing for greater durability recovery. Technically, one could simply say 'Repair' and equipment would gain back durability.

Now that it was morning, all the players that had been resting and idling within the city began migrating out to the fields. Veritas was now having second thoughts about continuing to train.

_I'd like to get stronger, but about now all the hunting grounds near here are gonna start filling up with parties and they'll kill a lot of the monsters. It wouldn't be efficient to try and hunt around them. Hm... Maybe... I can level up my Repair skill a bit by repairing stuff. At least, I think repairing would level up the skill, otherwise it'd be pretty stupid and pointless._

He started with his own armor and weapons. The first level of Repair could repair an equipment's durability up to 7 points, the second level 10 points. At level 10, this amount would increase to 23. As the Repair skill is increased, the amount of durability that could be recovered at one time grew. This was important because a repair could be committed only once within a certain time frame. If the level of the skill wasn't high enough, equipment could slowly lose more durability than gained through repairs and eventually irreparably break. Veritas set out his armor and weapons on the floor and held the hammer, but didn't know how to proceed. Uncertainly, he reached out and tapped the armor.

::::

**You have repaired Dull Copper Armor.**

**Durability has recovered.**

**You gained expertise rating in Repair skill.**

::::

Veritas opened up the skill menu and looked expectantly at the exp bar for the skill.

::::

**Repair (Lv. 1 – 1%): Enables you to repair weapons and armors. Beyond Lv. 10, you can forge new weapons and gears.**

**Sword (Lv. 4 – 87%): Increases attack power and hit rating for swords.**

::::

"... 1%? … … How am I supposed to level up this damn skill at any reasonable pace like this?"

… … _Maybe I can try repairing other peoples' equipment? Maybe I can charge them to get their stuff repaired. Yeah. It'd be more convenient to pay less and not go all the way to the Smithy. Yeah, I'll do that. Hmm... twenty coppers?_

Veritas repaired his weapon then made for the usual field, which was moderately populated this time. It was still early in the morning so there weren't as many people as there would be later on in the day.

_Well, might as well make myself comfortable._

He dug up a bit of the ground to reach the soft loamy soil beneath the topsoil and used it to create an impromptu seat. Dirty, smelly, but whatever worked. From his seat by the city gate, he watched others fight. At times, he would cover his eyes in embarrassment at how inept others were at real combat.

So far, no one was coming, but they would eventually. Although players could log out wherever they pleased, they would reappear in the exact same spot when they logged back in. If the player wasn't careful about their choice of location, they could spawn next to dangerous monsters or large mobs. Because of this, players always logged out within a city whenever it was feasible.

After about an hour, a party returned to the gate to resupply in the city.

"Hey, need any repairs?" Veritas called out, "I'll do it cheap, twenty coppers per item!"

"Twenty coppers? That _is _pretty cheap."

"My weapon cost ten silver. The repair cost at the Smithy would be a silver."

"My armor cost a ton! I'd gladly take a cheaper repair!"

The individual members of the party handed him their equipment one by one, and he in turn repaired them, one piece at a time. Everyone was a newbie just like him, so he didn't have to worry about not meeting the level prerequisites for repairs. After all, no one _but _newbies would be hunting the lowest level monsters in the game.

After the repairs he made for the first group, the rest became smooth sailing. All it took was seeing that party bunched up near the gate, but not entering the city immediately to pique interests. Before long, other individuals and parties showed up at his doorstep, so to speak, curious about what was going on.

All that he'd needed to convey was a sense of convenience. By offering cheap repairs and staying so close to the hunting grounds, the incentive to use his services rose considerably. Time that would've been spent going all the way to the Smithy could be better used going to a nearby repairman to quickly return to hunting.

Each consecutive group drew the attention of yet other groups. In three hours, he'd made eighteen silver out of repairs, as well as bringing up his skill progress to over 90%.

As afternoon rolled around, Veritas tucked away his hammer after finishing one final repair request. He bowed, apologizing to those he hadn't been able to help. After all, he couldn't be expected to sit there all day, every day, and repair equipment. He was as human as the next person.

Just before he logged out, he thought to himself that the instructor's wife had been right after all. In the end, he hadn't regretted receiving the Repair skill.

xxxx


	4. Ahrah Forest

**Chapter 4: Ahrah Forest**

xxxx

Good lord. Writing original work is a lot harder than modifying existing work, that's for sure. I think this is the fastest I've ever released a story after I first started writing fanfiction (And boy, was my writing haphazard, bad, and full of Mary Sues and Gary Stus).

xxxx

Naruto couldn't help but yawn as he ran to Seoul proper. Over the past week, he'd spent almost all his time in Royal Road. When he wasn't grouped up with Gunter and Kirhi, he hunted by himself. Finally, though, the nonstop play was beginning to put stress on his body. While a player _could_ technically play the game in their sleep, and while the capsule's advanced on-board medical hardware could minimize the effects of keeping the brain working 24/7, Naruto discovered firsthand why the game recommended players to log off and rest.

As a ninja, he had better resistance than most to sleep deprivation. Because of the dangerous nature of shinobi missions, it was only natural to either sleep very little during a mission, or not at all if it was particularly vital. The Jounin sensei had been lenient when they'd been Genin, taking up watch alone while letting them sleep, but as they become older and more capable, it'd been expected of them as well.

So, if he was feeling this sluggish, fatigued, and stupid – ignoring the fact that he'd been called an idiot regularly by his friends – after not getting proper sleep for a week, then Naruto could imagine that the average person wouldn't last even three days.

"In this state, I don't think it's possible to try and find somewhere to train. I feel like a dead man walking." He couldn't manage more than a low mumble, feeling too tired to.

After two hours of running, the last stretch more like staggering, Naruto took a break in front of an expensive looking hotel in the middle of the downtown area. Although he had only broken a little sweat, it felt like his body had no more strength left.

_But still, I can't neglect my training. Kakashi-sensei was always telling me that complacency is the enemy of success. If I don't keep up my training now, I could be in danger when I go back... _If_ I get back..._

Sighing, Naruto gazed wistfully at the blue sky. In a short while, it would turn grey with smog as all the city's infrastructure began switching on. He reached for the sky. No matter where he was, what world he was in, this blue sky would always look the same. Somewhere out there, his friends would also be living under a blue sky.

_I miss them... This loneliness is overwhelming._

He'd been homesick before, when he'd been on the training trip with Jiraiya. The vital difference was that back then, he knew that he'd be able to go home when the time came. Here, it was different. Here, he didn't know if he'd be able to return home ever again. To never see the faces of those he loved and cherished ever again... To never speak with them, grow old with them, and die with them.

Though he'd only been gone for two months, this realization made it seem like he'd been gone for years. Helplessly, tears spilled from his eyes.

Naruto made no motion to wipe the tears away, letting them flow.

\ Men shouldn't cry so easily. Here. /

A handkerchief was offered to him from his peripheral vision. Sniffing away some snot, he shifted to take it, grateful. Wiping away his tears with the kerchief as he stood back up, he turned to hand it back.

The person in question was a well dressed redhead. A crisp black business suit made of what looked like silk, highly polished dress shoes, and high quality leather gloves. He possessed emerald green eyes and brilliant red hair tied into a ponytail.

"Thank you."

\ You're welcome. /

It was a different language than the one spoken in this land, but it sounded somewhat familiar.

The young man left the premise of the high class hotel that Naruto'd been sitting in front of and entered a sleek Rolls Royce. Though he lacked extensive knowledge of the scope of this world's technology, Naruto could see from a glance that the construction of the vehicle was worlds apart from the rest of the cars he saw daily.

_Damn, that guy is _rich_. _

Naruto yawned, mouth stretching widely.

_Dang, I should take a nap when I get back, I can't keep running on fumes like this. Though, I really don't want to run back. Rather, I don't think I could run back. I _could_ take a taxi, but trying to get back during the morning rush hour would be pretty hellish and expensive. I guess I'll grab a coffee or something and just walk back..._

xxxx

Black became light as Serabourg city came into view. Veritas appeared where he'd logged out, in South Serabourg Park.

Over the last week, constant hunting had brought his level up to 26. Although he'd made significant progress over the week, one aspect of his character that was starting to irritate him was the Repair skill. Even though he dedicated about two hours a day to just sit around and farm up repair requests from other players, the skill was only level 2 and halfway to level 3. The skill progression slowed tremendously as soon as it leveled up, and he had a bit of a theory about that.

_Seeing as the level of fully repairable items increases as I level the skill, maybe the amount of skill progress I get is related to the level of equipment I repair. _

On the plus side, he'd received the Handicraft skill when the Repair skill hit level 2. The Handicraft skill improved craft skills and sword mastery. Although he lacked any craft skill apart from repairing, the boost to his sword mastery would be helpful. Veritas had also been entertaining the idea of investing in daggers and throwing knives. It'd provide some variety and unpredictability in combat and give some range to his attacks. Not to mention he was already trained in using the weapons.

Today, Gunter and Kirhi would be offline for the day and then some, so he was free to do whatever he felt like doing. Feeling a little adventurous after rejuvenating his mind and body with a nap, Veritas decided that he'd try his hand at a new hunting ground today.

_East! Today, I head east! To Ahrah Forest!_

He already had the necessary supplies: bandages, healing potions, bread, and water. The trip would have taken about eight hours on horseback.

_Not that I have a dang horse._

The points he'd put into the Agility stat helped, but he was still far from reaching a shinobi's nominal run speed. Given his maximum speed, it would take about fourteen hours to reach the forest, so there was no time to waste.

_I have to get there before it becomes night. I also need some time to set up a safe camp._

While hunting in different areas, he and the party discovered that it was efficient to establish small bases stocked with supplies that could be used to rest safely in between hunts. It also made it safer to log in and out within the hunting ground, meaning less travel to and from the place.

As he ran, Veritas ignored all the monsters in favor of speed. The loss of exp and money by not killing them was tragic, something that gnawed at Veritas, but the possibility of dying – again – to nighttime monsters, because he'd taken too long to get to the forest, was even more horrible.

Whenever Veritas saw a large mob in his way, he detoured around them rather than run straight through.

_It might be better if I just broke through, because I'd only have to run in a straight line... But then, I'd probably take chip damage and if I kept repeating that over and over, I'd be at low health in no time at all. Then I'd have to rest and lose time. But would the time I lose from resting be more, less, or the same as the time I'm losing by going around the monsters? Arghhhh... I guess I'll just keep doing what I've been doing for now. _

After setting the issue aside for a later date, he concentrated on getting to the forest as quickly as possible, even as his body seemed to weigh more heavily with each step, his stamina waning

Just as the sun began to set, Veritas arrived at the edge of Ahrah Forest. Veritas promptly marched in to look for a good place to set up a camp. He didn't fear anything that would live in the outskirts of the forest, because they fell short of endangering him at his effective level of 50. The enemies that lived deeper inside were the ones that worried him.

About an hour later, as the sky began turning a deep violet, Veritas stopped to look around. He took a few minutes to examine the area, then chose a particularly thick and sturdy tree and began to climb. The trees here, close to the danger zone within Ahrah, were the tallest trees within the low level zone.

A danger zone is a high level area planted in the middle of a low level one. This one in particular had a recommended level of 60 and higher.

Knowing this, Veritas came to this place in order to train. Some might call him foolhardy or overconfident, while others might call him self-confident or deluded. None of what might be said would be very positive.

What Veritas did know was that, from his research of the area online, his speed and experience were more than enough to make up for the level difference.

The monsters within the danger zone were more sturdy than quick, strong than agile, and numerous than intelligent.

After climbing up about fifty feet, he set up a series of wooden planks with his hammer and some store-bought nails to make a small wooden platform. Supported by large tree branches underneath and using the tree trunk as a support column, the makeshift base would be stable enough to support his weight and a number of supplies for long periods of time.

Normally, it would be too difficult for a normal player to climb the distance fast enough to reach the safety of the camp, but Veritas had grown up in a forest, so to speak. Climbing trees, chakra or not, was in his blood.

Feeling almost like a shinobi again, Veritas jumped from tree to tree, landing on branches with a deftness that could rival an experienced acrobat. As he went, Veritas placed copper pieces in nooks and crannies to serve as a sort of breadcrumb trail back to the camp.

It didn't take long for the sun to set completely, making it too dark to maintain his pace, the dense foliage of the trees in the danger zone blocking much of the rising moon's light.

_Now I have to be a bit more careful. One wrong misstep and I either die from the fall or get finished off by monsters because I broke my legs. What I wouldn't give for being able to channel chakra..._

After some time, his eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, though he could only barely make out the forest floor. He heard some movement, but the dark and distance made it too difficult to make out where it was coming from or what it was.

… _Seeing as nothing passed below me, it must have been a short distance away. Well, I guess I'll try and get a look at what was moving before I head back. The monsters here should be easy pickings in the day. I shouldn't risk my life needlessly. People call me reckless, but not _that _reckless._

In the next fifteen minutes, Veritas continued to move from tree to tree, making sure not to rustle leaves or snap branches. The noises he was hearing continued to grow louder, though still muffled. Then, he saw lights about sixty feet from the three he was in. As Veritas moved closer, he could see that they were torches planted in the ground. Further on, he spotted a troop of pointy-eared warriors some distance away from the torches, using the flames to cordon off attack zones.

He'd read about these, one of the races of Royal Road. Wood elves, the near-immortals that made their home in forests such as these. They were one of many elven races, and most shared very similar outward appearances. Night and Shadow elves generally had black hair, High elves blonde, Wood elves green, Grey and Dark elves silver. The various elves also had differing skin tones, ranging from grey-black and pale lavender to conventional peach colors.

These wood elves were fighting a maneuver war against a horde of large, disgusting looking arachnids. Just looking at the large, four foot tall, hair-covered spiders made Veritas' skin crawl.

_Blech, bugs. Speaking of bugs, I don't think I could ever be one of those Aburame guys who have bugs live _inside_ of them. Gross!_

From his position up in the tree, Veritas watched silently. The elves would focus their bows on just a few spiders at a time while backing up, and when they came into close quarters, drew curved sabers to hack away spindly limbs and protruding eyes. From what he could see, the elves were well-trained and disciplined, but there were too many spiders. Inevitably, the elves were sure to take some casualties.

Veritas knew that these people were NPCs, and that they, despite all of their seeming intelligence, were still mere programs. He knew that he could just leave them for dead and no one would think less of him. But watching them struggle onto life, regardless of the medium, Veritas knew that he just couldn't leave them alone to their fate. It was simply not possible to deny his nindo, his way of the ninja, even in the depths of this game world.

Veritas drew his sword as quietly as possible, moving closer. When he was just above their battle line, he waited for the right timing and then dropped off the tree.

Pointing his sword straight down, Veritas intercepted an approaching spider. His blade pierced the unfortunate arachnid's head, and he used the spider's cadaver to minimize his fall damage.

::::

**Critical hit!**

::::

After spending some time fighting in Royal Road, Veritas discovered that striking vital points and weak points precisely caused critical hits, not including the random chance modifier for all attacks. The one spot that was shared amongst the majority of enemies was the head.

Ignoring the shocked expressions of the elves, Veritas leaped to the side and slashed out two eyes from a spider, then gored it through the face in a combo. Another critical hit. By taking away some or all of an enemy's vision and inflicting pain at the same time, it made it difficult for them to react to the followup killing blow.

Although at night, the spiders here would be fast enough and numerous enough to overwhelm him, they were occupied by the elven forces. Having the freedom to take them on one or two at a time, he found it much easier than expected to take on monsters of this level of agility. The spiders that reached the elven front line were already littered with arrows, which allowed his critical strikes to kill them instantly. During the day, it might have taken three, _maybe _two critical hits to kill off a healthy spider at his level.

Though it seemed as if he was rapidly killing off monsters at a higher level than he was, because of this reality, Veritas actually did not receive all too much of the exp. Thankfully, he did manage to grab all the loot from the spiders.

In thirty minutes' time, with his support in taking down wounded spiders before they reached the elves – who, while capable melee fighters, were fragile and better suited for ranged combat – the battle ended without a single elven loss.

The elves looked at him apprehensively and did not lower their guard. One, who seemed like the leader, stepped forward.

"Thank you for the help, human," he said, bowing his head slightly. "Though we are a proud race, we do not shy from giving thanks where it's due."

"No problem. I just couldn't stand by and watch you die."

The elf raised an eyebrow, disbelief etched on his face. "Even though we are elves?"

"It doesn't matter _who_ you are. I help those who need it. That's just who I am."

"We can give you nothing worthwhile for helping us."

Veritas shook his head forcefully. "I just told you, I did it because I couldn't just let you die. I don't expect you to do anything for me. Is that too hard to believe?"

"Yes. Humans are intrinsically greedy creatures, who seek their own satisfaction at the cost of others."

"That may be so, but I also believe that humans are capable of acts of supreme kindness and sacrifice."

The elf shook his head. "Outliers. They may exist, but they are the minority. Individuals in a sea of nations. But our distrust of humans is a separate matter. It is dangerous in the forest at night. Until the day breaks, I would have you come with us. What _is_ a fact is that you have helped us. This will settle the score. Follow us." Without waiting for a confirmation, he set off, the rest of the elves following suit without a word.

Deciding he might as well, Veritas trailed them, making sure to leave some distance between himself and the elves. It would be better to rest somewhere safe until sunrise anyway. Sure, he considered the camp pretty safe, but there was always the possibility that something could make it up there and attack while he wasn't paying attention.

It took an hour of brisk marching to reach their supposed destination. Supposed, because it seemed that the elves had just stopped in the middle of nowhere.

_Is this a joke? Can't be, these guys are NPCs. Unless Unicorn Corporation has a sick sense of humor. _

The leading elf raised his arm, and the space in front of them began to shimmer.

_I guess we _are _where we need to be._

Now, Veritas was no stranger to the supernatural, but it was the first time he'd ever witnessed an entire village being hidden like this. He followed the elves through the shimmer and watched as a forest faded out of view, becoming a village of tree houses.

It didn't take long for Veritas to sense that he was unwelcome. The multitude of glares might have possibly given it away.

_Gee, I sure feel welcome here. Don't mind me, I only just saved a contingent of your warriors, treat me like an outcast, go ahead._

"Nylinas, what is the meaning of this? Why have you brought a human into the village?" An elderly elf boomed from her position at the large tree at the center of the village.

"Elder, my apologies for worrying you and the village." The elf named Nylinas – the leader – dropped to one knee, as did all those who'd fought with him. "This human delivered us in our time of need, caught out at night by the witch's minions. When it seemed our lines would break, he reinforced us. Elder, I, too, believe humans to be untrustworthy, but to abandon one who helped us would be dishonorable. Upon our pride as elves, it is our duty to keep him until the sun rises."

"And if the human tells his people about us? We have lived these past centuries in solitude within the barrier, venturing out only when no one was about. Unlike our brethren at the capital, we swore to live in secrecy, as we always have, safeguarding our people, our culture, and our privacy."

"As... ridiculous as it may seem, I believe that this human would not speak of our presence here. As to why... he had no reason to come to our aid and risk his life. He claims to have done so on a whim, and though I cannot say that I can take him at his word, I sense that his intentions were pure."

"..." The elder elf said nothing, sharp eyes looking for any sign of dishonesty in the kneeling elf in front of her.

"..." Nylinas said nothing as well, but just looked the elder in the eye stoically, hiding nothing.

"... Very well, the human may stay for tonight." The wizened elf shot Veritas a look that told him what would happen if he tried anything strange before stepping back into her home.

_Geez..._

Nylinas approached him. "Human."

"I have a name, you know." Veritas was starting to get annoyed at how he was being treated. It reminded him about his unfortunate, lonely youth. "It's Veritas."

"Then, Veritas. You can stay in the square until daybreak. I will bring you a bedroll to sleep in. The weather won't be an issue, because the barrier around the village protects us from the elements."

"Alright, though I have a few questions I wanted to ask you."

"There shouldn't be any issue with answering them."

"Thanks. So, I've never heard of anyone setting eyes on an elf in this forest. Others must have obviously tried to uncover the forest's secrets. Why haven't they?"

"The barrier around the village was erected by the previous High Priestess centuries ago. It is special in that if one is not granted permission to enter, they will never be able to reach the village. This spell is repaired by every subsequent High Priestess."

"How were you never seen before?"

"Around the heart of the forest are spells that signal outside presences. Using this, we've managed to get by without ever being seen by the humans who came before you. Speaking on this matter, I have a question for you, Veritas. How did you manage to penetrate the forest so deeply, yet we did not sense you?"

"Oh? That might've been because I was traveling via the treetops."

"Interesting, we'll have to see to getting those warded at some point."

"So, let me get this straight. Your village essentially occupies an entirely separate space when it isn't manifested?"

"Yes. It is a complicated piece of magic that requires a tremendous sacrifice in blood. Our High Priestess gave her life so that we could live in peace. To elves, our respective High Priestesses are the equivalent of your Popes, so you can understand how heavy the cost was."

"I see, I see," said Veritas, who didn't really see. "By the way, your people really seems to hate me."

"They dislike all humans. Humans are infamous for devastating nature completely and utterly for their own profit. They do not care who or what they trample over in the process."

"Okay, fine. So you guys hate humans. Still, why am I stuck out here? Can't I at least stay with one of you guys? Like, I freaking helped you guys out of a tight spot, you know?"

"My apologies. Unless an outsider is approved by the elder, entry into buildings is prohibited. It's a very old rule that was instated back when we elves lived more openly."

"That is complete bull."

"Rules are rules. I will be back shortly with your bedroll." Nylinas left briskly.

"Well, shit. This sucks."

Veritas sighed and sat down. The ground was mostly grass, with occasional patches of dirt where the highest amount of foot traffic was.

He closed his eyes and tried to meditate, like he would in trying to enter Sage Mode. Veritas focused on entering a state of emptiness, siphoning away his stress and frustration little by little. He sat completely still, breathing at a steady rhythm. It was difficult because he didn't have the capability to channel magic. He was basically groping blindly, hoping to grab a moving target.

Veritas lost track of time as he sought to take in nature within himself. It was calming to meditate again. Ever since defeating Madara, he'd seldom had the opportunity to enter Sage Mode. The different nations had come to peace with one another, and the only real dangers left were from nukenin and the supernatural.

The essence of nature proved as fleeting as it'd been when he'd first started training to harness natural energy. Every time he tried to grasp it, it slipped through his fingers like smoke. Each time he thought he had it, it evaded him. Once, he managed to hold on to it for a second or two, but then that too slipped away.

Veritas opened his eyes and shivered a bit as his senses returned to him.

_I guess the temperature isn't included in the "elements". _

Someone had covered him with a blanket while he was meditating.

_Probably Nylinas. Typical. Acts cold, but is actually really considerate._

He frowned, sensing a presence behind him. It turned out to be the village elder, sitting on the steps of her tree house.

"Is there something you need?" Veritas asked. "How long have you been watching me?"

"Long enough. It's almost sunrise."

_Sunrise? Damn. _

"Human. You seem to know how to connect with nature. How is that so?"

"The name's Veritas, and I was taught how to do this by my godfather's mentors."

"Interesting."

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Why are you suddenly so willing to talk to me?"

"I'm speaking with you now because you display qualities that set you apart from the rest of the humans. It's quite atypical for a human to try and connect with nature like you just did. Most knowledgeable humans tend to merely surround themselves with nature, but you... you tried to become one with it, as we elves do. We revere nature. That doesn't mean we won't harvest nature's bounty when needed, but we do so in moderation and in humility. We elves understand our place in the world, that all life is nothing without the blessings of mother nature."

"I also respect nature. I grew up in a grand forest, just like this one. We lived with the forest, were protected by it, and protected it in turn. I think I can understand why you might dislike humans, but I don't think that's a good enough reason to spurn outsiders. If you close yourselves off like this, you'll never be able to try and teach others how to treat nature properly. They'll stay ignorant for now until eternity."

"There is no point in teaching if it will not be put into practice."

"The worst thing you can do is to not try, wondering if things could have been different, but never knowing. No one has ever walked without first falling down, elder."

"That may be true. For a human, you are wiser than I expected. Elves do not give out compliments lightly, so consider this an honor."

::::

**Reputation increased by 10.**

**Familiarity with the Elves of Ahrah increased by 20.**

::::

"Still, we don't trust humans. But, it may be possible for us to trust _you_. If you complete the various tasks we give you, we wood elves might just consider opening up to the outside world.

_~Ttiring~_

::::

A new quest!

**Trial of Proving**

**The wood elves of Ahrah seclude themselves completely from the rest of the world. To coax them out of their isolation and interact with the world, a mediator is necessary. Complete the trial and gain the elves' respect.**

**Quest Difficulty: D**

**Rewards: Elven Medallion.**

**Quest Restrictions: Complete within seven days.**

::::

_Aha! Quest! Today's my lucky day._

"I will gladly take the opportunity to prove myself to your people."

"Very well. Once the sun fully rises, get whatever you need at the stalls and return here for more details." The elder departed.

Veritas looked up the pale lavender sky and knew he still had some time until morning. He looked around at the surrounding forest. They were larger and more majestic than the ones at the outskirts of the danger zone. These were the well-cultivated nobility to the unruly problem children of the border.

_These giant trees really do remind me of home... _

Smiling, he recalled memories of running up trees. Of competing with his closest friend and greatest rival, spurring each other on in a test of superiority.

_Those were good times. We were innocent back then, so innocent. Weak too. But I think those are some of my best memories. I wonder what it's like in Konoha right now. Do they know I'm missing? Does anyone feel anything for my disappearance? Is the village safe? Are my friends... my family, safe? _

A bitter smile on his face, Veritas laid down and looked up at the sky. The sky in Royal Road was so very clear. There weren't many sources of light and emissions pollution. Here, in the heart of an elven forest, the sky stood out even more brilliantly. The skies in this world reminded him more of home than in reality, for obvious reasons. Veritas watched the sky slowly change shades as the sun rose higher and higher, at peace surrounded by nature's blessings.

After waiting until he could see the sun, he stood up and dusted himself off. He went to the stalls, and although the village was separated from the outside world, he found plenty of equipment on sale for currency – which could be melted down for the metals – or barter. Veritas took particular interest in a set of throwing knives – what were the chances of that? – made out of wood.

"Wondering if it will cut anything, even though it's made of wood, brat?" asked an old elf. He crossed his arms proudly. "Made out of the finest Ironleaf trees this side of the Versailles continent. Hard as iron, light as wood. Better velocity and penetration power."

Veritas examined a knife.

::::

**Ironleaf Throwing Knife**

**Durability: 40/40**

**Damage: 22-25**

**A weapon native to Wood Elves, the only known cultivators of the Ironleaf Tree. It is light, but deadly.**

**Restrictions:**

**Level 60.**

**Agility: 150.**

**Attributes:**

**5% bonus projectile speed.**

::::

_I'm not a high enough level to equip it yet, but those are some nice stats, and I already have the Agility. Ehhhh, why not?_

"Hmm... how much?"

"Twenty silvers each." He held up a hand quickly as Veritas made to protest. "Whoa there! Hold your horses, youngster. I'd like to remind you that these are superior to most anything you humans can churn out, and that they're reusable."

"I guess I'll take ten, then."

He handed over two of his nine gold pieces, crying mentally at spending so large a portion of his funds. Veritas told himself that it was a long-term investment, repeating that to himself over and over until he returned to the square, where the elder was waiting for him.

"Sorry, were you waiting long?"

"Our perception of time is very different from you humans because of our heightened lifespans."

"Oooookay?"

_I guess that means she didn't wait long?_

"If you have finished preparing, I will now tell you what you need to do. Your trial will be to clear the Arachnid Warriors from the Grove of Statues. You fill find the grove to the north. It is where we rest our dead. For the crime of desecrating our dead's resting place, the sentence is death. Be warned, the spiders there will be a detachment from their main force, not like the scouts from last night."

"How will I get back in the village after I complete this task?"

"_If _you complete it, you mean. If you succeed, come back to the point – you at least remember it, don't you? – and raise your left arm. That is the sign that signify that a village-dweller has returned. If you are an elf, or else acknowledged by us, the barrier will open for you."

"So... am I acknowledged by you?"

The answer was immediate, cold, and ruthless. "No."

"..."

"The sentries will know to expect you. This is a one-time only deal. You succeed, you enter the barrier. If you fail, we cannot acknowledge you, and you are kept out."

"So, who're you sending with me?"

"Hurry up and leave."

"... Wait, I have to do this _alone_?"

"Yes."

"I have to do something an entire force would do. Alone."

"Yes. You need to go at least this far to show that you're sincere."

"..."

"..."

"You're serious."

"Do I _sound _like I'm joking?"

"..."

Veritas turned on the spot and left huffily. He muttered darkly to himself as he passed the boundary, re-entering Ahrah Forest. As the barrier closed behind him, Veritas sighed heavily, then tucked his belt up.

"Well. Time to get to work then."

xxxx


	5. Respectful Dissent

**Chapter 5: Respectful Dissent**

xxxx

As per reader request, I modified Chapter 1 to have a better segue into the game portion. Also, a notice: I do not and will not have any yaoi or shounen-ai in my stories. As well, I will answer a pre-emptive question: This story will not contain any harem whatsoever. By harem, I of course mean any amount of romantic interests above TWO.

xxxx

Veritas walked through the forest, stopping occasionally to pick up plants and vegetation that looked particularly valuable or useful.

_So, the spiders I have to kill are stronger than the ones from last night, but the spiders had the night bonus so I guess they'll be roughly the same strength during the day. _

Ahrah Forest as a whole spanned a large area, but the danger zone within occupied a _much _smaller space. Someone could literally walk through the entire danger zone – barring dangerous monsters, of course – in about six hours. That's why he'd expected to be there and back before sundown. But, after all, plans rarely go according to plan.

_What the heck, I've been going north for two hours and I haven't seen any grove or any monsters. This feels really, _really _suspicious. This is my first time in a danger zone, but it shouldn't be this quiet or empty._

After another hour, he noticed the changes in tree density and the amount of light coming through the canopy that denoted the boundary between the danger zone and the rest of the forest. Yet, he hadn't come across the grove yet.

_Maybe it's in the low level zone? But what would danger zone monsters be doing out there? This can't be right. If that was true, then someone would've found out about it already. The main forest is a pretty popular spot for low level players. But if I'm wrong and it _is _in the lowbie zone, I'll have to hike all the way back and lose a lot of hours. Might as well check, just in case._

Veritas traveled further north and combed through the forest, section by section, but still found nothing. He sat in a tree next to the danger zone, which he found – from a sign – was called the Ahrah Hearthwoods, shaking his leg in annoyance.

_Maybe it comes out at night only? But why would that be? If that were true, it'd be in a barrier like the wood elves' village, and no one mentioned anything about a barrier. Maybe it only comes out on a certain day... Gununununuu! _

Veritas ruffled his hair madly, frustrated. There were too many possibilities, but not enough time or resources to investigate them all.

_Alright, calm down. The night monsters in the Forest are pushovers at my level, I can spend that time looking through it again, at night, rather than wasting time waiting for sunrise. Then I can try to search every nook and cranny of the Hearthwoods, and try to see if I can find the grove at night the next day. That leaves two days used, with five left to finish the quest. Alright, let's do this!_

Veritas searched up and down, making sure not to miss a single spot. Yet, when those two days passed by seemingly in the blink of an eye, he was no closer to finding the grove than he was at the beginning.

"Fffffffffffffffffffffffff-!"

It took all he had not to explode in blind fury. He was now sure that no such grove existed north of the village. That meant one of two things: That the elder had lied to him, or that, in her senility, she'd gotten the direction wrong. Given the crone's sharpness, Veritas could only conclude that the former was the case.

_How dare that hag send me in a completely different direction! Why I oughta- GRRUUUHHH! _

Veritas mimed strangling a person.

_This is more infuriating than all those times Sasuke-bastard acted like he was better than me. How the hell am I supposed to find a grove when I don't even know where it is?_

At a loss, Veritas returned to the base camp he'd set up on the first night, sitting down cross-legged in the cramped space.

_I... just don't know what to do. _He let out a huge sigh. _For now, I should just calm down a bit... calm down... take deep breaths. Hmm... Oh? Maybe... But it's a bit of a long shot. No, I can do this. I _have _to do this. I have to prove that witch wrong!_

Veritas closed his eyes and began to meditate, like in the wood elf village. He emptied himself so that he could become a vessel for the natural energy. It was also a great stress reliever. When learning to harness natural energy, frustration could set a person back, interfering with the meditation. But after mastering it, it could be used to drain away negative emotions.

He reached out for the sensation he'd felt when he'd snagged at nature's essence. Now that he knew how magic felt, it was only a matter of time before he mastered how to become a conduit for the magic in nature.

_And maybe, I can use the things I learn in Royal Road to become stronger in real life. Like, maybe I'll finally learn how to use Rasengan with just one hand, or learn new taijutsu styles that no one's ever seen back home. Heheheheh... ack, focus, focus! Riiiiiiiight... THERE!_

Naruto'd always been just a little proud of being a prodigious learner, but sometimes he couldn't help but think he was actually a genius. Well, maybe finding out that the genius Yondaime was his father kind of went to his head, and having Kyuubi to supplement his chakra reserves throughout training that would've felled a normal shinobi also helped. So perhaps he wasn't a genius, but surely he was talented. After all, willpower alone wouldn't have ever carried an inept shinobi through the elemental-affinity training, among the many other training programs he'd gone through.

Still, he'd done it. He now had a relative grasp of taking in magic in Royal Road, and only taking two times to do so. Of course, this didn't mean he could use magic. He could just sense it through meditation and use the magic inherent in nature as a sort of active sonar, sensing irregularities and presences.

::::

**New Skill: You have learned Meditate.**

Meditate

Releasing the mind and body's impurities increases all stats by 10%.

Effects last four hours. Can be used once per day.

::::

Veritas widened his senses, taking in large swaths of the forest under his examination. Multiple sections of the Hearthwoods showed large numbers of homogenous presences. He mentally marked all the areas with such concentrations, then looked at the forest's magic. Trees showed up as darker splotches than grass and brush, so Veritas examined the marked areas for grove-like formations of trees.

_That. That has to be the grove._

He finally knew where he had to go. East! He opened his eyes, wincing slightly as the brilliant light of the setting sun temporarily blinded him. Meditating really seemed to take up a lot of time.

_I guess it won't be too useful until I level it up. Anyways, it's going to be night soon. I should probably clear the grove during the day... The grove isn't _too _far, it's at the eastern edge of the Hearthwoods. I should just , then wait till morning, yeah._

As the sun disappeared and the moon rose, Veritas made his way through the treetops. Just as with the first night, it allowed him to move unseen and unheard. He could hear the skittering of arachnids beginning as night fell. Veritas silently thanked his ninja skills, because the quest would have been that much more difficult if he'd had to use conventional means of movement.

_Maybe that was the point behind the quest. It was supposed to be really hard, so I bet that Elven Medallion thing is gonna be worth a lot! Hehe._

At about midnight, Veritas stopped short of entering the area immediately surrounding the grove. For one of the few times in his life – to the chagrin of all his friends back home – he stopped for safety reasons. He'd have nothing to do while waiting six to seven hours for morning, so he logged off for the time being, leaving his character seated in a tree.

Naruto exited the capsule and stretched widely.

"Well, what should I do for about an hour and a half?"

He sat on the floor for about ten minutes, but couldn't think of anything.

… _sigh... Running would take too long. I can't train in such a small space surrounded by fragile things. I can't circulate natural energy, because the only quick way to expel the energy from my body is to use it. Radiating the energy out from my body takes a few hours... I guess I can just practice my chakra control._

Naruto set a small kitchen timer for about an hour and ten minutes, then walked up one of his bare walls. He crouched down, put his palms on the wall, then directed chakra to his hands. By far, learning to bring out and use chakra from the hands were far harder than with feet. To be used as a tool for battle, one also needed the Byakugan to see the other person's tenketsu. Otherwise, utilizing chakra control through the hands served very few purposes. The most common were for training and for medical ninjutsu.

_This is... hard. I haven't even gotten started yet and I'm having a hard time getting my hands to stick properly... there. _

Hands stuck, Naruto released the chakra from his feet and let his body hang. The force from gravity nearly caused him to lose his grip on the wall. When he was satisfied that he wasn't going to fall, Naruto then started performing pullups. Accounting for the changes in downward force and friction against the wall would hone his chakra control. Normally, pullups would be a simple thing for any ninja, but having to concentrate on maintaining just the right flow of chakra on top of that increased the difficulty exponentially.

He was successful for a few minutes, until his control gave out and he fell. Rubbing his ass, Naruto got up and repeated the process. It was grueling work, but necessary to improve not only his abstract strength consisting of knowledge and experience, but also his physical ability.

After the timer rang, he took a short break. That's what the extra time had been allotted for, after all, for things like wiping off sweat and washing his face, or grabbing a drink of water.

He again entered the capsule and closed his eyes.

"Log in."

Veritas opened his eyes and found himself completely undisturbed, as he'd guessed would happen. Luckily, this forest had absolutely no tree-borne monsters, so he could consider himself 100% safe in the treetops. The sun was rising now, as six hours had passed in-game.

_Heh. It's time. Let's kill me some spiders and finish this quest. _

He used the various tree trunks as platforms to jump progressively lower and lower to the forest floor. This was something he first witnessed watching Sasuke at Wave Country. He'd been absolutely humiliated at the time, but now he was deft enough to do the same. Well, deftness was something that had come excruciatingly slowly to Naruto. He'd always preferred to rely on brute force and clever tactics, after all.

Again, the forest was suspiciously empty of life. There had to be a reason why the spiders were only active at night. Fortunately, there _were _enemies present as he entered the grove. Forty spiders, all as tall as shoulder height.

_They're not nearly as creepy crawly in broad daylight though, thank goodness._

He drew his sword and dashed forward. Speed was of the essence, and speed he exercised. Almost all of his bonus stats were allocated to Agility, so he was faster than the average level 60 player, assuming equal distribution between Agility and Strength. He spun and whirled, zigged and zagged, using his momentum and centrifugal force to keep up a furious tempo of sword strikes.

Although using fists generally brought better speed and versatility to a fight, Veritas did not use them here. Unlike wolves, spider carapaces were tough and resistant to hand-to-hand, although with a sufficient Strength stat, one could overwhelm the defense stat with sheer blunt force. However, the penetrative bonus of bladed weapons combined with their superior Attack stat would be more efficient. Another deciding factor was in the difference in skill levels between the two modes of attack. He'd yet to unlock the Fist Mastery skill through continuous usage of hand-to-hand, while he had several levels in Sword Mastery, which further supplemented his offensive power with blades. Finally, the Warrior class gave a 50% boost to the Attack stat when using the weapon of choice for the class, a sword.

Although it'd be more efficient to merely focus on minimizing damage taken, Veritas tried desperately not to get hit at all. Sometimes taking hits was inevitable, and one could even say taking hits could be beneficial in the long run by increasing stats like Fortitude, but regardless, if it was in his power to not get hit, he tried not to.

In a furious bout lasting just under three hours, thanks to the sturdiness of the arachnids and Veritas' comparatively low Strength stat, he emerged victorious, leaving spider corpses strewn across the grove. As it happened, Arachnid Warriors were just a teensy bit weaker than Arachnid Scouts were at night, which helped him get by without falling to dangerous levels of Health.

He finished looting the corpses, but as with all the other monsters he'd killed, the corpses stayed true to reality and stayed there. And, like in real life, the dead bodies of monsters in Royal Road stunk up a storm. Very few people hunted in a single location for too long, because the rising pile of corpses would continue to intensify the smell of rot. He didn't like it either. He'd rarely seen rotting corpses, even as a shinobi, because of how quickly a fight would end and the victorious shinobi would leave the area.

It was well within the seven days allotted for the quest, probably because he'd saved a lot of time searching by communing with nature. More time was saved by moving via treetops as well, avoiding a lot of the baddies that appeared at night. Though a little 'pooped' by fighting such a long, continuous battle, Veritas decided he might as well return to the elf village and rest there, where it was safe. Now that he'd cleared this section of the forest, it could be possible that whatever monsters used to reside here – assuming it hadn't just been the spiders from the start – would return.

The trip back was about as safe and leisurely as a stroll, and by the time he reached the barrier entrance four hours later, he was all smiles. He was also happy about the multiple levels he'd gained during the battle, whose bonus points he allotted to Strength this time. The spiders were tough and he'd need as much power as he could muster to kill them within a reasonable time frame.

Veritas raised his right arm and waited. And waited.

_Nothing. Why? … Oh, for-... _

Resisting the urge to facepalm, he lifed his left arm. The barrier rose, allowing him entry into the wood elf village. From within, he could see the sentries snickering to themselves. Blushing furiously at his embarrassment, Veritas made straight for the elder's home. The sentries must have sent a message ahead, because the whole village was already gathered around the central tree.

"Human Veritas, have you completed the trial given to you?"

"Yes, elder. The deed is done and the grove is clear. No spiders remain."

She turned to Nylinas, who nodded, as if he had seen the spiders be eliminated firsthand.

_That wouldn't surprise me. This crafty old witch probably had me followed, and these elves would know the forest better than anyone, even me. _

"I'm impressed, you were able to detect my subterfuge far earlier than I'd expected, and finished the trial with much time to spare. You possess great skill, human Veritas, and for that, we laud you. Step forward!" The elder brought out an old wooden box as Veritas stopped in front of her and withdrew a shining medallion. "This medallion represents our grudging respect for your skills, as well as your will. With this, you will be able to enter any wood elf village, and it will grant visibility of any of our race's barriers."

"What's the purpose in being able to see the barriers?"

"For one, we wood elves can naturally see the barriers, so that we may know if our kind has been or is currently there. I suppose you can say the barriers can act as signs. For you to be able to find many of our brethren, you will need to be able to see the barrier in place to uphold their isolation."

"I see." Veritas bowed and took the medallion with both hands.

::::

**Quest Complete!**

**Trial of Proving**

**You have gained the wood elves of Ahrah's respect by clearing their ancestral resting grounds of the Arachnid infestation. Though they have detested humans for centuries, this act can perhaps become the start of a bridge for repaired relationships.**

**Reputation increased by 10.**

**Familiarity with the Elves of Ahrah increased by 15.**

**You have received Elven Medallion.**

**Level up.**

::::

"Now that you have proven yourself, human Veritas, will you not help us reclaim our ancestral lands? Over the past decades, the witch and her spiders have been gathering their strength. In recent years, they've finally made their move, taking large swaths of our lands with their superior numbers. The land at the exact center of the Hearthwoods is a particularly potent ley line that allows us to draw out and channel nature's magic in the physical realm."

The elder and the elves bowed their heads.

::::

A new quest!

**Ley Line Recovery**

**The ley line of the Ahrah Hearthwoods was once the vital piece of the wood elves' defenses. Without it, they cannot effectively protect the forest. Retake their ancient land and gain their trust.**

**Quest Difficulty: D**

**Rewards: Elven Horn**

::::

Veritas did not even have to think. For someone as prideful as the elder to bow, even slightly, showed just how important that land was to them. Therefore, there was no question as to what he should do next.

"I accept."

"Our deepest thanks, human Veritas. Very well! To facilitate your success, several of our warriors will be appropriated for your command. Velyn! Ayla! Fyora! Ylisia!"

Four elves stepped forward from the ranks and stood in a line in front of Veritas. The elder then gestured grandly towards them.

"They are our most gifted trainees, the equal of any of our regular warriors despite their young age and inexperience. I assure you that they will prove most useful in your endeavor to take back the ley line."

Veritas should have been delighted that the wood elves were finally giving him proper support. The elves might not by Nylinas, but they were good enough. Like the elves he'd seen on the first night, they were similarly equipped with longbows and sabers. As trainees, they wore only cloth armor, so their _very _low defense could pose a problem. Each of them had the same long, light-green hair, green eyes, and slim bodies. The problem at hand, though, was that they were all female.

"Why... are they all girls?"

_Is this some sort of... test? Of lust, or something? Errr..._

"Look around you, human Veritas."

_Look? Uh... _He looked around at all the elves gathered. At first, he didn't get why the elder had asked him to do so, but he began to catch on after really taking a good look at the crowd. The majority of them were female! _Why's that, I wonder?_

"We wood elves have a male to female ratio of 23:77. For reasons known only to the gods and our ancestors, wood elves produce an inordinate amount of females. Therefore, males are of incalculable import to the village, so I cannot in good conscience send any of them with you. All the more so concerning Nylinas, the most talented warrior our village has seen since its inception."

"I... see?"

"You are free to set off whenever you please. For this task I have not assigned a time limit, so please, take as long as you need, just so long as the ley line is freed from their control."

"Right, thank you."

He headed to the gate, and the four elves followed him in a line.

_Okay, it's... almost mid-afternoon. The exact center of the Hearthwoods should only be about an hour or so from here. There should be time to scout the place out before nightfall. Heck, I could probably get back by the time the sun sets. Heyyyy, short commutes are pretty cool!_

The trip to the heart of the forest was uneventful, almost boring even. Then again, being able to take an idyllic walk through a majestic forest was enjoyable in its own right.

"This is it," said Velyn, pointing to a spot about twenty feet ahead. "Beyond the brush right there is the heart of the Hearthwoods." He recognized her by the earring she had on her long, pointy right ear.

Veritas began climbing the tree next to them. "If you can climb, climb now. If you can't, just wait here."

"Where are you going, human Veritas?" This one was the bustiest of the four, Ylisia. Really, once he assigned one corresponding attribute to each name, it got pretty easy to tell them apart.

Ayla looked like an elven Hinata, always looking insecure and nervous, and Fyora had the shortest hair of the four.

"I'm going scouting. Going via the treetops is the safest way."

"W-We'll come with you." Ayla looked around at her fellow trainees. "Right?"

Velyn smirked. "What kind of wood elves would we be if we were incapable of climbing the trees of our own forest?"

"Well, if you're coming, come. We don't have too much time before the sun starts to set." Veritas said, looking down on them from ten meters up.

He waited for the elves to catch up with him before climbing a little further. When they were all gathered, he began moving forward towards the ley line. Veritas didn't know what it looked like, but he was pretty sure that the elves would tell him when they reached it.

_I can also probably tell where it is by the presence of monsters, seeing as the quest is to clear the infestation there. _

He started hearing the skittering below them that signaled the presence of spider monsters. When the elves didn't say anything, he started to worry about the kind of numbers they'd have to face.

"The ley line is right below us," stated Fyora.

_Right-o, let's take a look. _

Veritas shimmied down to the lowest set of tree branches and peered below. What monsters he could see were dozens and dozens of arachnids, at least one-hundred. They'd passed a lot of spiders along the way, so there were a lot more than just that in total.

_Must be why they didn't give me any sort of time limit for this one. Ugh. _

He returned to the waiting elves. "Let's get back to the village. With that amount of arachnids, we'll need to make a lot of preparations."

_Damn, I'm so used to completely outnumbering the enemy with my Kage Bunshin that I never really learned how to properly wage a war of attrition. What to do... I wonder what the level of these elves are. _He looked back at the trailing elves. _But it seems like it'd be kind of rude to ask them what their level is... sort of like asking a girl about her weight... They might take it as an offense to their pride or something. Sigh..._

Years of getting beaten by the fair gender had left him wary of offending others, though he still occasionally did it without realizing. Just thinking about the beatings he'd received from Tsunade and Sakura made his head hurt.

Just as he'd predicted, they returned to the village just as night fell. The sentries hurriedly ushered them into the village, before the spiders came out in force. Veritas sat himself down on the grass, intent on thinking of how to deal with the army of spiders.

_Obviously, just the five of us can't take them all on. It was a hard fight beating forty of them, but well over a hundred? And the elves have really low defense, so it's not like I can have them on the front lines. _

_~Ttiring~_

Gunter: We're back! I thought we were going to go crazy without Royal Road, haha!

Veritas: Oh, welcome back. Listen, I was wondering if you could help me with a quest I'm trying to beat.

Gunter: Where are you, anyway?

Veritas: Ahrah Hearthwoods.

Gunter: Wow, uhh, yeah, I think Kirhi and I are a little weak to be going there.

Veritas: Nah, you don't need to come. I just need some help. See, I have to exterminate all these spiders, but there are at least a hundred of them, and I only have four NPCs to help me.

Gunter: NPCs? In Ahrah Forest?

Veritas: Eh. Long story.

Gunter: You'll tell us later, right? Well... I guess you should focus on leveling yourself and the NPCs up.

Veritas: Thanks, I guess I'll do just that. So yeah, looks like this quest will take a while. When I'm done, I'll drop a message by.

Gunter: Alright.

Veritas looked around for the four elves, but they weren't there.

_Maybe they went home. Speaking of, do I still have to sleep outside? Well, if they've up and left without my permission, I'd better pick them up. At least I remember where Nylinas lives._

It took a bit of coaxing the elf and some time to go around and regather the four elves under his command.

"I don't remember dismissing you," he told them straight up, without beating around the bush.

Velyn sneered. "I don't remember you having that much authority over us."

"The elder made you my responsibility. I specifically recall her saying that you'd be placed under _my command_."

"You may lead us, but you'll need to earn our obedience, human Veritas."

Veritas stared at the elves. "Do you all think that?"

Their silence was deafening.

"I see... Regardless of what you think of me, it's going to be impossible to clear the ley line at this rate. The arachnids only come out at night, and so we'll hunt at night and increase our levels. If you think this doesn't make any sense, speak up now." He put his hands on his hips and thrust out his chest, daring anyone to do so, which no one did. "The faster we start and the longer we hunt, the quicker we can clear your ancestral lands. If you think that's a good thing, then come."

Veritas made for the gate without looking back. It looked like appealing to their sense of duty towards the village worked, because they all showed up.

"Before we leave, we need to set out some rules. First, loot. Loot will be split 70-30, my favor."

"What!? 50-50," Fyora demanded.

"No way. The plan is to put you four in trees and fire at anything that moves, while I draw the attention of the arachnids." Veritas paused, re-evaluating his words after seeing an evil glint in Fyora's eyes. "Anything that moves, _except me_. I'll be taking on the majority of the risks and dangers involved, so it only makes sense that I get more of the loot."

"Sounds reasonable, Fyora," agreed Ylisia.

"Alright, second, out on the field, I'll need to have you follow my instructions." He held up a hand to stop the more boisterous elves from speaking out. "I have a lot more experience fighting than all of you combined. How else would I come back in one piece after clearing the grove alone? That's why you need to trust my judgment and experience in actual combat, because whatever you may think, I probably know better."

When they nodded, he turned and motioned to one of the sentries, who used sensor magic to make sure the coast was clear before opening the gates.

"Godspeed," called the sentry as the gate closed behind them.

Veritas lead the four elves west through the treetops. The east was pretty clear after his work at the grove, they were close to the southern border of the Hearthwoods, and the north lead to the ley line. So, the place with the best concentration of spiders would likely be to the west. He checked the map of the area, which slowly filled itself as he explored areas he hadn't been before. Though the area for the western Hearthwoods was mostly blank, he approximated that they were close to the centroid of the section and initiated his plan.

"You four, stay here and fire at anything that isn't human or elf. The spiders will be tough, so go for volume of fire over accuracy. I'll draw them to a spot about fifteen to twenty meters from here and fight it out there."

Dropping down after hearing no dissenting opinions, Veritas moved swiftly. The Arachnid Scouts that prowled the forest at night were slightly stronger than the Warriors he'd defeated at the grove. Worse, they were much faster, given their namesake of Scout and the strengthening power of the night. He moved loudly, gathering the attention of the monsters in the area, and he could see just how fast they were when they weren't being bottlenecked into choke points. He was still faster, but Veritas had no desire to become surrounded by the agile creatures.

After gaining the aggro of about thirty or so of them, he circled around to where he'd left his elves. As he'd expected, their desire to improve and protect their village overrode any feelings of distrust they might have with his leadership, or lack thereof when he actually looked at his stats, and a hail of arrows bombarded the pursuing Scouts. Just as he'd instructed, they prioritized quantity over quality, and although some arrows missed, he'd made sure that the mob following him was large enough that accuracy wouldn't matter too much.

::::

**Leadership has risen by 2 points. (+2 LDR)**

::::

_Nice, I guess having your orders followed increases the Leadership stat. But let's focus on the battle for now!_

Veritas targeted the spiders who were slow, having been struck in the legs. They would be the easiest to kill quickly. Really, losing himself in a whirlwind of combat was a refreshing thing. In real life, he couldn't exert himself to his limits because everyone else was normal and he couldn't afford to – and didn't want to – stand out.

He'd rather not be treated as some sort of circus animal or test subject, after all.

The overall difficulty of the fight was about the same as the fight at the grove, but the excellence of the elves' long-range capabilities truly showed during a long battle. The strong penetrative and wounding attribute of arrows made the battle much easier, as did being free to move wherever and however he wanted without having to defend a single point. Veritas didn't even drop below 50% of his Health before the spiders lay annihilated on the forest floor.

Veritas picked up all the loot, which he'd divide 70-30 once they returned to the village. He waved to the elves with an arrow, telling them that they should pick up the arrows to reuse.

_Alright, that wasn't too bad. Bandage myself up, recover my Health, and I'll be good to go. _

By the time they finished gathering up the arrows and returned up the trees, Veritas returned with more spiders on his tail. This process repeated itself four more times before they retired to the village, the sun rising over the horizon. The training was going well. He was now level 34 and the elves gained a few themselves to become level 56. It'd been much easier to find out their level once they'd leveled up, as the elves wanted to show off. Veritas eyed them. He could see that the four elves were visibly exhausted, having missed sleep to train in the night. Veritas divided the loot using Royal Road's random loot distributor before addressing them.

"Now that that's done, good job! Go home and sleep, and we'll be doing this every night we can. This'll probably screw up your sleep patterns, but it's for the sake of the village, so suck it up." Again, he appealed to their sense of duty, which prevented the prideful elves from speaking out against him.

Sensing that he was done with them, the four elves slunk home to warm beds.

_Now... I guess I can leave my character in the open while I'm offline, since the temperature isn't too low that I'd catch a cold. _Veritas smiled gleefully. _Heehee, so this is what authority feels like! They weren't joking when they said that power corrupts, hehehe! I think I might become addicted to ordering people around. Heck, I might as well consider it practice for when I become Hokage. _He became very silent, remembering his situation. If_ I become Hokage... sighhhh..._

Reminded again of his likelihood of never returning home again, Veritas logged off without another word.

xxxx


	6. Old Friend

**Chapter 6: Old Friend**

xxxx

Author's note: I would like to reiterate that Royal Road's time passes four times faster than in real life. Four hours in RR is one hour irl. This means that, despite being shown playing a lot, he actually has plenty of time when he isn't or can't train in-game to train irl, either by practicing his chakra control or just keeping his body in shape through daily morning runs.

Also, I may edit this chapter at a later date, because I've essentially uploaded it un-beta'd. Honestly, once you stare at a chapter for upwards of 20 hours, it's easy to not want to look at it any longer, but I also wanted to keep up with my upload schedule (Which may become longer, pending getting a job).

Finally, do drop a review of what you think I'm doing right, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, things I'm doing wrong or can improve on. I'm not perfect, and I can make errors.

xxxx

Veritas logged on just early enough to see the sun set. Tonight, he let the four elves sleep in. Since the first night, they'd gone out every night for three weeks, gathering and defeating increasing numbers of Arachnid Scouts. He was level 54 now, and the elves were level 66. He'd made up a lot of the level difference because the elves received greatly reduced exp from the level 63 Scouts after passing their level. Veritas was pretty confident that they were now ready to clear the ley line.

"Stat window."

::::

**Character Name: Veritas**

**Alignment: Neutral**

**Level: 54**

**::**

**Class: Warrior**

**Title: None**

**Reputation: 20**

**::**

**Health: 2830**

**Mana: 100**

**Strength: 160**

**Agility: 205**

**Stamina: 70**

**Wisdom: 10**

**Intelligence: 10**

**Fighting Spirit: 58**

**Endurance: 78**

**Fortitude: 37**

**Leadership: 52**

**Luck: 5**

**:: **

**Attack: 145**

**Defense: 45**

**::**

**Magic Resistance**

**Fire: 0%**

**Water: 0%**

**Earth: 0%**

**Black Magic: 0%**

::::

_Looks good. Six more levels till I can use the throwing knives, yay. I've been putting a lot of my points into Strength so that I can deal more damage, faster. I think I'm good on Strength until like level 70 or 80 now, I'd say. __Anyways, I should restock on my supplies and prepare for the morning. I took a nap before logging on so I'm good to go._

These three weeks, he'd managed to level his Repair skill to 4. While normally it would take longer, the unimaginable speed with which he decreased the durability on his equipment – from essentially solo fighting superior mobs constantly – meant that he also repaired his equipment at an abnormally high rate. With applying first aid to himself in the same state, he also received the Bandage skill that increased the effectiveness and efficiency of bandages.

Another positive factor of the intensive training they'd been undergoing was the abundance of dropped loot. For the moment, he hadn't pawned any of his loot at the NPC stores, figuring he might be able to haggle out a better price with player merchants. Still, he'd collected a reasonable sum of gold from hunting spiders, so Veritas appropriated a portion of those funds to buy 600 arrows. The arrowheads were made out of premium Ironleaf wood, which cost a fair bit to purchase.

_Still, we'll need a lot of arrows to deal with the enemies today. Our largest pull at one time was sixty spiders, but this time we'll be going up against well over a hundred, maybe even two. This is for my sake too, because if they run out of arrows to shoot, I won't have anything between me and the spiders. _

He walked back to his usual spot on the grass, wondering what he should do next. He carried all of the supplies in a rucksack. It looked exceedingly bloated with items, but Veritas hefted it easily. The maximum weight a player could carry depended on the user's Strength and Stamina stat, so a person with thousands of stats could hoist a building-sized backpack with ease. If a player tried to hoist something that exceeded that maximum though, he'd take a large cut to the internal stamina meter that determined fatigue.

Veritas eventually decided to meditate, if only to level up the skill some more. Before he could get started, he was approached by Nylinas.

"Human Veritas, I know you usually sleep outside, but the day is the day, and the night is the night. If you rest here too often, when the village is at its coldest, you will catch a cold and be unable to fight properly. You've done much for our village, and the least I can do is offer you a place to sleep during the evening."

"Wow, thanks!" Veritas stood up and smiled widely. "You're the first one to offer, so I really appreciate it, Nylinas." He held out his hand.

The elf raised an eyebrow questioningly at the action.

"Oops, hehe, sorry about that. I guess I keep forgetting that shaking hands is a human custom." He scratched the back of his head in mild embarrassment. Every now and then, Veritas had received bits of schooling here and there from his four charges.

"No matter." Nylinas reached out before Veritas could withdraw his hand and shook it. "I don't mind occasional acts of friendly skinship such as this."

"You're pretty cool, Nylinas."

He smiled. "I try."

In a few minutes, they were sitting around a table next to a crackling fire.

"That fireplace, it's made out of wood. Why doesn't it burn as well?" Veritas leaned forward, absolutely mystified as to what was happening.

"The fireplaces are made out of Ironleaf. This wood has a tolerance to burning under a certain temperature, just like a metal."

"I see, I see. Speaking of things I don't know much of, why is it that the arachnids only appear at night?"

"We're not too sure of that ourselves. From what we've seen though, we believe that each arachnid is under the direct control of the witch of the forest, the Spider Queen."

"What do you mean?"

"You see, the webs that the spiders secrete all burn away when exposed to sunlight. We believe that the witch controls them using a similar secretion, which would limit her activities to the darkness. Following this reasoning, the arachnids you will face at the ley line are likely feral, left there to garrison the area even without control."

"Huh. So, uh, where did the witch come from?"

"The witch is, we believe that she is the incarnation of the forest's wrath. You see, Ahrah Forest used to be much larger than it is now, but about a century ago, the humans of Rosenheim Kingdom began to deforest it." Nylinas twiddled his fingers idly. "We were helpless to prevent it without exposing ourselves to them. Perhaps it is the forest's will deciding that it can do a better job of protecting the forest than we can."

"Hmmm..." Veritas didn't look too convinced.

_Will of the forest? What the heck. Sure, we had a Will of Fire, but that wasn't literal. Then again, this _is _a game with stuff like elves and magic. Though, is magic really that nonsensical? I bet a lot of people in real life wouldn't believe that I could run up buildings. Hm..._

"Okay, let's say that the witch is a product of the forest's wrath. Is there any way to reason with the forest? Like, convince it to stop being so hostile?"

"There is." The elf's gaze suddenly seemed distant. "The Spirit of the Forest. We used to be able to speak to her through the High Priestess, but when the priestess disappeared, we lost our only link to the forest. It was always our custom to have the previous priestess ordain the next. We protected them fiercely so that a situation like this wouldn't arise. But one day, she simply disappeared. The sentries did not see anyone pass, and none of the sensor runes detected abnormal movements."

"..."

"I believe we've talked enough. You should rest, I believe you have a busy day starting from the morning."

"Thanks Nylinas, and good night."

xxxx

Veritas stood just outside of what the elves called the boundary of the ley line. To him, it looked like any other patch of forest, but maybe they had the ability to see something he couldn't. Whatever the case, they promised him that as long as he didn't enter the boundary, the spiders wouldn't attack. When asked how they knew that, he found out that the wood elves had probed the arachnids' defenses multiple times.

In the end, they'd come to the conclusion that the cost to retake the ley line would be too great, and the elves abandoned the notion of committing to a Pyrrhic victory.

The four elves, Velyn, Ylissia, Fyora, and Ayla, were above him, waiting for the signal to advance into the ley line. Unlike at the grove, the area here was very dense. While it wouldn't impede his mobility much, it would restrict his line of sight and create opportunities for ambushes.

Still, it had to be done sooner or later. The elves had already reached the upper limit to training on the Scouts, and he was quickly approaching that limit as well.

_Personally, we won't be able to get that much stronger even if we trained another week or two. These four were also getting pretty antsy and fidgety. Well, so was I. I'm not so dumb that I won't prepare for a fight, but I'm also not the type to think of every contingency. I always left that kind of stuff to Kakashi-sensei or Yamato. Though since I'm on my own now, I really should start doing that myself, huh..._

An arrow thudded into the ground in front of his feet. As per their plan, this meant that they were ready and in position, with the arrows evenly distributed and within reach. Veritas took a deep breath, then darted forward.

Immediately upon entering the ley line, he was intercepted by four enemies. Startled by the speed of the enemy's response, Veritas took a graze to the side as he dodged. He got his wits about him and counterattacked with a fusillade of blows, killing all four in as many minutes. His Strength tripled with recent stat distributions and his Sword Mastery skill leveled up once more, Veritas' significantly increased damage output was enough to dispatch the tough arachnids quickly.

But he could only maximize his damage when up against a few enemies. Too many, and he had to dedicate a large portion of his time, effort, and focus to dodging.

Over the thundering of a mass of charging spiders, he could hear the sharp twangs of elven bows from behind him. Reassured that it wasn't him alone against an army, Veritas stayed his ground and waited for the inevitable attack to come. If he retreated, the bows would be unable to cover him, and if he advanced, he risked going beyond their range.

They came at him in droves, their increasing numbers threatening to surround him completely. Veritas fought wildly to prevent that from happening, for that would signal his death. He concentrated on realizing the fullness of his shinobi skills as best he could. All around him, arrows pierced the sea of spiders with sickening squelches. He could feel his frustration mounting as two spiders took the place of every fallen one. Dozens became hundreds, as every arachnid within the Hearthwoods rose up to swarm their foes. No matter where Veritas turned, there was always a slobbering maw waiting for him, trying to spell his doom. Not an hour had passed when the sound of twanging bows ceased, with less than half of the monstrous spiders killed.

_So this is what it feels like to be on the receiving end of my Tajuu Kage Bunshin?_

Though he weaved and dodged to the best of his ability, he could see his Health bar diminishing piecemeal. Veritas didn't have to be a genius to know that, at this rate, he'd die before the spiders did. The realization that he was being slowly killed by the same tactics he exercised back home was both ironic and humiliating.

_So this is my limit? I never thought I'd be so easily overrun... Shit... shit, shit, shit, Shit, SHIT! Is this _all _I'm capable of? Is _this _all I can manage!? Pathetic! _

Within him, his frustration became a rising rage.

_I'm better than this. I should have been able to wipe out all these bastards without taking a scratch. God damn it!_

How could he simply sit still and do nothing after taking this insult, this affront to his life and self as a shinobi? To the loving parents and close friends that had given their lives for his sake? That their sacrifices could be made to become so meaningless. That all of his training could be so easily invalidated. That everything he'd learned, how to move, think, react, and fight, was useless in the face of superior numbers. Everything that comprised him and made him who he was, denied from him... All at the whim of a mere program, restricting his true abilities.

He couldn't. He simply could not accept that. That this was his limit, as far as he could go. He would step forward, no matter the cost, just as he'd always done. Veritas' anger, compounded by his bouts of depression from homesickness, bubbled to the forefront.

When the four elves dropped in around him, sabers drawn, he barely acknowledged their presence.

What he did do, was draw on a familiar primal fury from deep within his soul.

::::

**New Skill: You have learned Dying Rage**

Dying Rage

On the verge of death, the injustice of defeat temporarily raises all stats by 30%.

::::

The floodgates had been opened, and nothing could stop the raging torrent of emotion now. Veritas unleashed his indignation with a howl and leaped headfirst into the swirling mass of foes. He became destruction itself, straining his mind and body to the limits defined by the system. He twisted and coiled his body into positions no normal person would attempt, and fought with a ferocious combination of sword and fist, striking so hard that the dampening system could not fully compensate for the feedback of pain. There was no way to truly replicate his real strength in this virtual world. Not yet.

But he'd _damn well try._

Kyuubi... Kurama might not be here, might not have even transferred with him between the worlds, but his body and soul remembered the indelible influence of his chakra and wild ferocity. Veritas let out all of his pent-up frustrations, fears, and worries in an explosion of emotion. He let his emotions run freely and take control of him. It was almost as if he was letting Kyuubi's chakra run rampant in his body again, the way he lost perception of what was around him as he lashed out at everything. At the peak of this intensity, Veritas lost control of his self and could only watch as he seemingly drifted from his fighting body, vision slowly fading to black.

When he could feel solid ground under him again and opened his eyes, Naruto found himself in a dark, damp passageway. He didn't even need to think about where he was. Oh, he knew where, but _how_?

_How... how am I here? I was just... I was in Royal Road. Is it even possible to lose consciousness in a virtual world?_

Naruto walked knowingly through the passages. He never stopped to get his bearings, because he'd come so often that he knew the labyrinthine halls as well as he did his own home. His walk soon became a jog, a run, and then a sprint. He was here, where it'd all started. This was his mindscape, one that he shared with one other. He who'd been connected to him from birth. His companion, friend, and equal.

_Please, be there! Kurama!_

He pushed open the doors to the Kurama's chamber. As the sound of the slammed doors reverberated throughout the room, Naruto peered in, into the darkness. Not one single candle remained lit, not a trace of the usual red miasma that hung around the room could be seen. Naruto placed one foot forward, and then another, and another, walking towards the giant bars at the far end of the chamber. Though the prison remained closed and sealed, the darkness within remained unmoving.

_C'mon Kurama, where are you? You gotta be in there, you just have to. I... I need you. You're my one and only connection to our world. As long as you're here, I can remain who I am, a proud shinobi of Konoha. This world, its normalcy is eating away at me. If you're with me, I can continue to hope. Hope beyond hope that we'll get home again some day. _

Naruto reached out, expression full of want. He placed a hand on the seal. His breath hitched, hoping for any sort of reaction. But when it became obvious after some time that nothing would happen, Naruto turned to leave his mindscape, dejected. ==

"**What, leaving so soon?**"

He whirled around, eyes wide. From within the darkness of the sealed cage, two glowing red orbs appeared.

"**How's it hangin', Naruto?**"

"You... youuuu..." Naruto stomped the ground fiercely and shouted, "You _idiot_, where have you _BEEN_?! For months, I tried to talk to you! I thought you didn't make it! Yet, you've been sitting here this _entire time_?! Why didn't you say something! How can you just act like nothing happened! After worrying me so much?!" He huffed and puffed as he unloaded everything.

"**...**"

"Say something, Kurama!"

"**...** **I've been thinking.**"

"About what!" Try as he might, he couldn't calm down. All Naruto could think about was why Kyuubi hadn't said a single word these past months. He wouldn't take such a simple excuse for an answer.

"**Just like you, I was at a loss for what to do when we landed in this world. That was my home as well, Naruto. I've been trying to think of a way back.**"

"But did you have to be so silent?"

"**Anyways,**" continued Kurama, pointedly ignoring the blond, "**I think I might possibly have a way. It's a long shot, but it's worth a shot.**"

"Really?!" Elation surged through him.

"**Yes. I know some techniques that can rip holes in the fabric of space, though I don't know where they lead, if they lead anywhere at all.**"

"Well? What are they?"

"**Hold your horses. First off, techniques that alter time and space are very delicate and prone to fluctuations. These techniques of mine were meant as a final resort, not to be used whenever I felt like it. Second, the techniques require a highly concentrated discharge of chakra focusing on a single point, enough to distort the space there. The amount of chakra needed is no simple matter, even for myself.**" Kurama closed his eyes, apparently thinking for some time. "**Finally, this world has almost no chakra present on it, because no one knows how to mold and release chakra. The techniques in question only worked because the chakra present in our home world served as a counterpoint to my emitted chakra, creating an unstable reaction between the two types. Also, the only method for myself to output that much chakra was by taking in chakra from the world.**"

"You... can do that?"

"**I am a bijuu. Although our chakra capacity is large and beyond the comprehension of most humans, they aren't infinite. Our seemingly endless reserves of chakra were only made possible because we could draw chakra from the planet. The Rikudou Sennin planned us that way when he split us from the Juubi, so that we wouldn't be easily captured and his work undone before the ****proper time.**"

"Which means...?"

"**What it means is that, because there is no chakra residue on this world, I'll need to mold and release huge quantities of chakra to simulate it. Our world had the accumulated chakra of the Juubi and the Bijuu, countless samurai, and hundreds of thousands of shinobi. The amount of time I'd need to release that much chakra is considerable.**"

"How long do you think it would take?"

"**About three years.**"

Naruto grimaced. "Well, shit."

"**Shit is right. And it'd be nice if you didn't forget that this is all theoretical. Although I can rip space, there's no way to define where it leads. That's why I'll need more time to think up a solution to that. If there isn't any way to stabilize the rip and set a desired destination, then we're not going anywhere.**"

"And how long would _that _take?"

"**It'll be ready when it's ready. Time won't be much of a concern. If we fail, we'll still be stuck here, so it will be better to just take our time and make sure that everything's in order before proceeding. So, until then, I need you to survive. If you die on us, it's the end. Also, you need to stay in the same general area, else releasing all this chakra isn't going to mean squat if we can't concentrate it.**"

"Got it." The blond smiled at his huge friend. "I'm glad you didn't disappear, Kurama."

"**Sometimes I wish I had, given what you always get us into.**"

"And... well," He scuffed his feet sheepishly, "sorry, for... y'know, shouting at you."

Kyuubi bared his mouth in an attempt to smile. "**Don't worry about it, Naruto. Loneliness happens to even the best of us. They say that loneliness is the most terrible form of poverty. Even the great me was a victim of it at one point. Anyways, get going. You've been lying in that thing all day.**"

"Err..."

"**What.**"

"No, it's nothing really. Just that when I'm lying in the capsule, it means I'm in a virtual world."

"**What.**"

"They call it a video game, see. It's a form of entertainment where you live another life in virtual reality."

"**What.**"

"Listen, just sift through my memories, okay? Everything should be there. I'll see you later, Kurama."

At his will, his perception returned to his virtual self. Now Veritas, he looked around at the scene of destruction all around him. His Health bar flashed a deep red, warning that it was at a critical level.

_Wow, did I do all this? _Smirking, he thrust out his chest. _Now this is more like it! This is how strong I should be, a demon compared to everyone else. Oh, what happened to the elves?_

They were a ways off, recuperating from the battle. Bandaging wounds, staunching bleeding, putting ointment on cuts. They'd been in as perilous as situation as he'd been in, after all. He wouldn't be surprised if each of them had barely made it out of the battle alive, just like him. Veritas couldn't help but notice that, as he approached, they looked towards him with wide eyes. Without a doubt, he knew they were in awe of what he'd done. If he had to make a comparison, it'd be to the time when he'd first seen Kakashi fight seriously, against Momochi Zabuza as they endeavored to take the bridge builder Tazuna back home safely. The killing intent, the high level combat and ninjutsu, of reading through and beyond every move, all of it had left him amazed and desirous of the same prowess.

"It was quite the battle, wasn't it?" he asked airily. "But we managed to do it, we cleared the ley line."

"We did, and you were amazing, Veritas," replied Velyn. "I'd never thought a human to be capable of such feats." For the first time since meeting the elves, she smiled. "You're really something. It's no wonder the elder appointed you with this task."

"I think the same," Ayla volunteered. "Even though you have no stake with us wood elves, you fought to the bitter end for our people. You have my respect."

Fyora and Ylisia nodded their heads in agreement.

Veritas felt some amount of joy in his heart. Finally, the respect he deserved, on top of restoring contact with Kurama and finding that there might be a way home, never mind that it'd take years of diligence to accomplish it. He was used to not sweating the small stuff. After pillaging the bodies of loot, which took near thirty minutes, the five of them returned to the village. They were received with much fanfare, and a unit of wood elves was dispatched immediately to garrison the ley line. As with what happened after clearing the grove, Veritas stood in front of the elder and surrounded by the villagers. This time though, he was flanked on either side by his four elven companions.

"Veritas, truly you are an ally of the elves. Few of your kind would have sought friendly relations with us, and fewer still would have risked their lives for our livelihood. For your selflessness and bravery, I commend you."

::::

**Quest Complete!**

**Ley Line Recovery**

**The ley line has been retaken and the elves' trust gained. Though once rendered defenseless by the Spider Queen, they can once again rise as the protectors of the forest.**

**Reputation increased by 20.**

**Familiarity with the Elves of Ahrah increased by 25.**

**You have received Elven Horn.**

**Level up.**

::::

Veritas received the horn from the elder, who placed it in his hands respectfully.

"This ancient horn is one among many, once used to call upon the aid of the other elven races. Though we have all separated from one another, every elf is compelled to follow the horn's call, though whether they'll render assistance is an entirely different story. This is an artifact given only to those trusted to use it responsibly, for the betterment of the elven people."

"Thank you, elder. I'll use it well."

"However, our work here is not done. These lands will never truly be safe until the Spider Queen is defeated and her brood eliminated." The elder paused to look behind her. "However... if our worst fears are true, and the witch is truly the realization of our noble forest's wrath, then defeating her will not be the end of our troubles. The forest would raise another to take her place. In order to prevent that, we must be able to establish a rapport with the forest once more. To do so, we need a High Priestess. Whether searching for our last, or appointing a new one, a priestess is needed to speak with the forest's spirit.

::::

**Ahrah Forest**

**Defeat the Spider Queen and end the immediate threat to Ahrah Forest. Then, drag out the previous High Priestess' fate from the witch or find a suitable member of the village to be appointed the position. Without that, the Wood Elves of Ahrah will never be at peace.**

**Quest Difficulty: C**

**Rewards: Spirit Stone**

**Ironleaf Compass**

::::

"I accept the mission, elder. Without fail, I'll see our races reconciled with one another."

_And I'll see myself stronger and enriched with rare items and loot. Money makes this world go 'round._

"As I'd expect from a human of your caliber, Veritas. I warn you however, the witch's den will be a perilous place with danger around every corner. To that end, you'll need greater support. For this mission, I will assign a task force to accompany you." She then looked at each one of the adjacent elves. "Velyn, Ayla, Fyora, Ylisia, well done. Your efforts and achievements have not gone unnoticed. With today's victory, our people once again have the means to defend ourselves and the forest. Kneel." Simultaneously, they all knelt down on their left knees. "Once, you were trainees, sworn to protect our land and its people. Now, you've become warriors, battle-tested in the fires of actual combat, and heroes, giving hope to our people once more. I now bestow upon you the rank of Ranger. From this point on, you and your fellow Rangers will risk your lives once more, and I and the village shall pray for your safety."

Every elf in the village placed their right fist over their heart and stood in solemn silence.

xxxx

Naruto stretched, as he always did upon leaving the capsule. Though it never seemed stifling when he online, the moment he returned to a body full of aches and cramps from lack of motion was an unpleasant one. He heated up a cup of ramen as he changed to go out. As he ate, he thought about how he should proceed with his training, or lack of it. He'd been in a right state for some time, and he hadn't been in a state, emotional or mental, to be training.

_I can do chakra control on my own at home. To practice or make jutsu I'd have to go somewhere really remote where no one would see me. I could learn some sort of taijutsu or maybe even learn to use a weapon. It's not as cool, but it should help in battle and in Royal Road. I remember how Kakashi-sensei would switch up styles in the middle of a fight and catch me off guard. Man, Kakashi-sensei sure was cool. _

Finding the right place to learn a combat-appropriate style would take some time and effort, so that'd be for the long term. For now, merely maintaining and bettering his physique would have to be enough. And he'd better spend some more time outside of the game to do so. Just running in the mornings wouldn't cut it if he wanted to _improve _himself. True, the game was his chosen method of bringing in income, but there was the future to think of. Improving his skills in reality would also trickle over into the game.

Naruto ran to a secluded corner of a nearby park, where he practiced his frog kata. Though he'd mastered harnessing the natural energy, he realized that he could use some improvement with the speed and accuracy of executing the fighting style.

_Dang, I'm a bit rusty, _he realized minutes into practice.

Thankfully, he'd been taught well. Though his skills had dulled slightly, he still knew how to properly run through the frog kata. Naruto took his time in correcting his stance and form, making absolutely sure that he'd be using the kata correctly in the future. A small mistake now could lead to a huge mishap later. This was one of the pieces of wisdom ingrained into him by his teachers and his godfather. Though he may have learned improperly in the past, whenever he was shown the correct method, he'd never hesitated to fix his ways.

Naruto smiled bitterly, remembering the loss of Jiraiya. It'd been too soon, much too soon. And truthfully, he'd never completely gotten over that loss. The perilous situation the world had been in had demanded he put his grieving aside for the greater good. Losing Neji not much later hadn't helped things.

_In the end, I think we were really alike, Neji and I. We'd both had our fates dictated to us, and we both denied them, reaching out for our happy endings. I think... I think Neji did defy his fate. He died on his own terms, of his own will, for a peace he believed in. I think that, for a shinobi, that kind of death is the best we can ever aspire to. _

He paused, feeling like he was being watched. Naruto maintained his posture, but closed his eyes and expanded his awareness. He whirled and pointed in the direction of the presence.

An old man stepped out from behind a tree. His spectacles flashed as he approached, a smile on his face.

[I see you've interest in the martial arts, young one.]

Naruto recognized that it was Korean from the way the syllables rolled off the tongue, distinct from Japanese. "Sorry, but I don't understand."

"I see, I see. I'll say again, I see you've interest in the martial arts, youngster."

"You... know Japanese?"

"Haha!" laughed the man, "Look at how old I am. Of course I know Japanese! I was but a child during the Japanese occupation of our country. We were forced to learn their language as they tried to eliminate ours. The Second World War ended that and gave us our freedom back." He looked Naruto up and down. "You don't look like a Japanese though."

"I'm not. I grew up somewhere that spoke the language."

"Indeed? Indeed? It's quite a beautiful day, isn't it? A perfect day to be out in the open, if I do say so myself."

_What the heck's up with this guy? _Naruto was confident he could handle anything that might possibly happen, but he didn't lower his guard. Something about the person made him wary.

"Yessir, a perfect day to be out training. So, what was that kata you were practicing?"

_Here's the curve ball. Errr, think fast, Naruto. _"... It's nameless, my godfather's... close friends taught it to me. Apparently it'd been a one-off style of his before he died."

"Godfather? No parents? Tragic, how tragic, the young these days are so cruelly mistreated. Well, on the matter of your style, it certainly doesn't look ornamental, that's for sure. Surely it's not meant to kill people?" Despite the slight accusation, the old man did not stop smiling lightly, which added to the blond's wariness.

_What does this guy want? Why is he asking these questions? _"I don't really like to hurt people, but yeah, it's supposed to have the potential to kill people. In a worst-case scenario," he added.

"Ho! But surely there are better methods of harming others." The old-timer adopted a thoughtful expression. "Perhaps by a sword? Have you ever considered sword arts?"

"I... have..." _This conversation is... why is it heading this way? What's your purpose, you geezer?_

"Good. I can see you have skill and talent, just not the means to bring out to its fullest. I believe I can provide the means to do so." He bowed. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Kim Chung-hee. It may be a little arrogant of me to say this, but I am the ninth-ranked swordsman in Korea."

… _Is this guy for real? Shouldn't he be in some sort of retirement home...?_

"Ah, I can see by that doubtful look on your face that you don't believe me. Oh, you look a tad surprised. I suppose you didn't realize just how clearly your face showed what you were feeling. Well, if you don't believe me," He withdrew a business card from the breast pocket of his coat, "come to the address of this dojo. It is a genuine dojo, and you will find that I am a genuine master of the sword arts. If you desire to become stronger, even just a little bit, seek me out. I am at the dojo on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, though I do believe I could make an exception for you. Call ahead and make an appointment, and I'll be expecting you, brat, haha."

Naruto watched the self-proclaimed sword master turn and leave. He looked down at the business card, which read 'Kangha Kumdo Dojang', with the stated master indeed named Kim Chung-hee.

_Well, it couldn't hurt to visit it. I mean, what could they possibly do, try to kill me? I'd beat them to a pulp. _

"**They could scam you out of all your savings.**"

_I'm not that much of an idiot, Kurama. Even I can recognize things that are too good to be true. And even if I do fall for a really clever scam, I'll be relying on you._

He could imagine Kyuubi's face distorting into a twisted grin as he replied, "**Think you can really trust me? We might have made up our differences, but I'll never stop enjoying watching you in a pinch.**"

_You wouldn't do that, _thought Naruto, confidently, _Because if I lose my savings, we're as good as dead. You want to return home too, don't you?_

"**... Hmph... Well played. Well played indeed.**"

Smiling, Naruto returned to his training.

xxxx


	7. High Priestess

**Chapter 7: High Priestess**

xxxx

Author's note: I'm not well versed in exercise, haha. Also, please tell me if you find any errors and incongruities in the story, or problems in format. I try to find them all, and occasionally I'll find some weeks later, at which I go back and edit it immediately. Tell me, and I'll fix it asap.

xxxx

That evening, Naruto returned to the apartment from the gym. He'd searched high and low for a place with Japanese speakers, using clones to minimize the amount of walking he'd have to do. He'd been offered to try their equipment and services for a limited time after expressing his desire to get himself in shape. Naruto could see it in their eyes, how they saw him as fresh 'prey', all the more so because they sensed that he was still relatively new to life in Korea and tried to trick him into paying more than was fair. Still, he'd had more than enough experience with dealing with street-smart sellers back home. He'd had to, to get what he needed to survive. The trial was free for a week, and if he decided it was worth his money, he'd be able to pay for a month's membership afterward. His muscles ached and burned, and Naruto moaned as he fumbled with his keys.

This was his first time committing to genuine strength training. Naruto had tried every machine, utilizing all the muscles he'd neglected over the years. The burning sensation was still very much present, and it felt like he had no strength. Not only that, but this was the first time he trained without chakra. All ninja learned to unconsciously use small amounts of chakra to enhance their body's performance, coating the bones and muscles in a thin, protective and supportive layer. His use of chakra to enhance his body wasn't nearly as pinpoint as Sakura's, who gathered all of her chakra into single limb strikes and expelled the compiled chakra at a single moment for devastating results.

By consciously preventing his body from doing so, Naruto reasoned that his muscles would improve much quicker by having to stretch more. While that was true, he hadn't anticipated the rush of pain that came with abruptly stressing muscles unused to uncommon stress. The concept of stretching before exercise was generally unknown by the majority of ninja, practiced mainly by those who focused almost entirely on the use of taijutsu.

_This... is too much youth... Bushy eyebrows, you had to go through this your whole life? Ugahh..._

Still, by improving the body, a shinobi's most important tool, he'd become much stronger. If applying chakra to the body resulted in a multiplicative effect, then the greater the base – the body – being modified, the greater the results.

Naruto crawled into the capsule after downing two cup ramen, desperate to erase his physical pain by entering the virtual world.

_I'll visit that dojang place sometime. If I went too soon, I'd look too eager. I want to look like I can't make a decision on whether to learn or not, it'll let me haggle better. Anyways..._

"Log in."

The sun set slowly over the horizon as he took on the name of Veritas. Blissfully, all of his previous pains dissipated quickly, his body feeling as if it were lightening. Veritas hopped a bit, making sure that none of the pain had followed him into Royal Road, before calling up his elven entourage. Velyn, Ylisia, Ayla, and Fyora didn't seem to be experiencing any discomfort from pulling an all-nighter, as expected from the training they'd done for three weeks. To the other, grumpy and sleepy wood elves, Veritas, _once again_, pleaded with their sense of duty and honor. The quicker they scouted out the witch's domain, the faster they could get to work and rid her from the forest.

_It's kind of ridiculous that this is all it takes and keeps taking to get these elves to move their asses. But it works, so whatever, I'll beat this horse till it's dead. _

The elves led the way to the dungeon, a simple cave carved into a rock face. Veritas could tell that other players had come through before, because he didn't get a notice that he had discovered a new dungeon. All across the continent, players sought to discover new dungeons before anyone else, because those who did received double experience and item drop rates for a week, and the first monster they killed would drop its absolute best drop. The bonus experience and loot were so valuable, in fact, that some players would stop at nothing to hoard it for themselves, even murder.

_Though this dungeon's been explored before, it obviously hasn't been fully explored, otherwise people would've fought and killed the Spider Queen already... unless this isn't the first one. _

They moved to the rear of the strangely empty dungeon, where an opening a sheer wall appeared, leading deeper.

"What the-"

"An elven barrier," intercepted Velyn. "You'd be the first human to step foot in this part of the dungeon."

_Oh, the medallion,_ he realized. _It lets me see elven barriers, I nearly forgot._

For about 500 meters, until the group to reached a junction that split off into multiple paths, they did not face any opposition. From what Veritas knew about dungeons, their denizens, being indoors, were not affected by the cycle of day and night. This was meant to stabilize a dungeon's difficulty so that, unlike in the overworld, players could penetrate into a dungeon at any time as a group. This also meant that the witch should be able to control all the arachnids in the dungeon according to her will without any sunlight to burn away her controlling threads.

Which was why it was very strange for nothing to bar their way even as they traveled towards the heart of the witch's domain. Here they were, uninvited guests into someone else's home, but nothing was coming to fight them off.

"Should we split up?" suggested Fyora, gesturing to the medley of passageways. "Wouldn't it take too long to explore each one individually?"

"I... I think we should stick together and safely go through each passage," Ayla raised a counterpoint, which both Ylisia, Velyn, and a host of other elves agreed with, considering the risks of splitting up.

"Yeah, it's too risky to split up right now. We're going to need our full strength to break through the dungeon and attack the Spider Queen directly." He drew on his experiences from the Fourth Shinobi World War, where armies of shinobi had acted as delaying forces to let the elite forces take care of the two Madaras and Juubi. "It might be tedious, but I say we should move as a single unit through these passes and go through them methodologically. We've got more to risk than they do."

Fyora looked at the nearly identical entrances. "Why don't we just check each path first?"

"You know, my teacher always taught me to look underneath the underneath. If something looks too obvious or good to be true, it probably is. That's why we're going to go through each one, so that we don't get tricked and lose our bearings."

Agreed on a plan of action, the subjugation force received the combat they'd been expecting in the following passageways. Arachnid Spitters blockaded the cramped passes, bombarding the group with hissing acid. The first few attacks against this blocking force resulted in failure, with the force falling back to recover before any deaths occurred. Veritas sat cross-legged on the floor, stumped. The elves were equipped with shortbows, better in confined areas than longbows and faster, but weaker as well. The average level of the Arachnid Spitters that blocked their way was level 68, while the average level of the elves were about 72. Players and NPCs could defeat minion monsters roughly equal to their level. Elite monsters would take several people or a party, and boss monsters would require anywhere from several parties to several guilds working in concert to take one down. So while the elves could probably beat the spiders in single combat, the enemy had force of numbers and better durability in these cramped quarters.

Losing a single elf would be a huge blow to their limited offensive power, and also strengthen the enemies, who could also level up by actively fighting and killing players, NPCs, and other monsters. This was the reason why a large portion of the monster-base were outfitted with AI routines, so as to introduce variables into the strength of monsters as individuals and as a whole.

"Do you guys have shields?"

"We do, but..." Ylisia hung her head slightly, "we didn't bring them. They're heavy and reduce our mobility."

"But... we're in a cave. Just being in here does the same thing."

"The elves are a free people, literally and metaphorically." Velyn quickly got his back with a series of skillful and graceful movements. "We don't like to be fettered down with equipment so that we can't move to the best of our potential."

He rubbed his chin. "Still, I think we're going to need shields. Like it or not, those acid spitting monsters are in our way and we can't seem to break past them with conventional methods."

"Let's see if we can't break through with brute force," Fyora suggested. "The most agile go in and occupy the Spitters while the most accurate support them."

Although he'd addressed the whole unit, the elves that responded immediately were the four he was most familiar with. Perhaps it was because of that increased familiarity that they were unafraid to voice their opinions in front of their peers.

"Hmm... denied." Veritas stepped forward. "I'll go in by myself. Not that I don't trust your skills, but your lives are more important than mine."

_Which is true, _he thought, dashing forward, _I can respawn, but if these guys die, they stay dead. _He shifted his body left and right, dodging trails of acid. _Just imagine these are shuriken. Shuriken. That will burn away at me down to the bone if it hits me... _

Veritas jumped and struck the first spider with a spinning ax kick to the head. Up close was both the most dangerous and safest place to be. If a Spitter lobbed acid at him point blank, it would be a miracle if he dodged it. On the other hand, _because_ he was so close, he could tell where they were aiming their acid, and could even change it by hitting their heads. Between his use of frog kata, acidic friendly fire, and a hail of arrows that passed through every open space – even the one between his legs, to his ultimate fear and displeasure – the Arachnid Spitters soon fell to the last.

He stepped back and admired his handiwork. The frog kata was a style that focused on dealing out extreme blunt trauma via a body empowered with natural energy. This blunt style excelled at crippling and disabling foes. It had the potential to kill, but only if the practitioner wished to. Though his strength was far from the level he was used to when using the frog kata, the satisfaction of _feeling _his strikes crush flesh and bone was worth using the style. Now that he was practicing properly, Veritas could feel that his form was a bit better than before.

"That was pretty good," he admitted. "Not too bad at all. I think we can roll with this, let's keep going."

He and the elves cleaved the way, demolishing the spitting spiders with the surprising combination of one mobile attacker and a posse of supporters. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and it did not much further on.

Veritas frowned as they left behind the strewn corpses of arachnids and faced... yet another junction splitting into many paths.

_Could we have walked in a circle through some sort of genjutsu? No, there weren't any openings to cast one. I'm pretty sure there wasn't. But then, does this mean that the Spider Queen's lair is gonna be a labyrinth of one right passage in a sea of false ones? Fuck, I hate places like this. Orochimaru _always _made his bases like this, it was such a pain. _

He sighed. "... We've got no choice but to go through them one by one. Do we have a way to keep track of where we've gone?"

Ayla placed a hand on the wall next to the furthest entrance and chanted something under her breath. When she brought it back, the piece of wall had a small glowing circle. Veritas leaned forward to examine it.

"It's a basic Trail of Light spell," she explained, "all wood elves learn it when we're young to help us navigate the forest. Once we get older and more accustomed to the forest, we find less use for it."

"Cool. Right, let's go guys."

The next passage was also populated with enemies. A front line consisting of level 73 Arachnid Butchers, larger, tougher, and stronger than their Warrior brethren, and the rear covered by the Spitters. This battle proved much tougher, because the large Butchers protected the Spitters from the majority of the elves' arrows. Two unsuccessful pushes later, Veritas decided that the most accurate shooters should focus their fire on the spiders' weakest points, their eyes and joints, while he kept them busy from the front. This worked better, and the group eliminated the arachnids there and moved on, only to find themselves facing a dead end.

Veritas scratched his head. "I guess we'll just have to backtrack and try the next one."

As he expected, they continued to run into dead ends throughout the day. When the sun began to set, they returned to the village to rest, resupply, and re-equip for tomorrow's run of the dungeon. NPCs needed time to rest, just like a normal person, and the forest wasn't safe at night. It was as the elves were examining their own equipment that it struck him that he could repair all their weapons and armor to try and level up his Repair skill.

_Good thing these wood elves wear leather armor instead of cloth. I can only repair leather and metal armor, you need to be a Tailor to repair cloth armor. _

He reflected this to the elves, who consented to letting him repair their equipment. Going to the village blacksmith would still cost some barter, whereas Veritas offered to do it for free. He sat down and took the pieces of equipment one by one, repairing each and every one of them. With his Repair skill at level 4, he could only repair 14 points of durability. Thankfully, the fantastic strength of Ironleaf weapons seemed to decrease durability loss, and he'd done most of the dirty work, so he managed to repair their equipment completely. Veritas smiled as he brought the hammer down again and again, happy that he'd managed to hit level 4 repairing his own equipment these past few weeks. It was regrettable that it hadn't occurred to him to repair the four elves' equipment as well, but now he had a fifty-elf-strong force's equipment all to himself. Repairing everything after their dungeon excursion brought up the Repair skill's progress by a whopping 15%.

_I keep this up and I'll be level 5 in no time! _

No time indeed. He had all the time in the world, because the witch's lair proved to be every bit as labyrinthine and annoying as he hoped it wouldn't be. Apart from days where Veritas exercised and trained, he spent the remaining time in Royal Road, exploring the caves. Sometimes, they'd come upon passages that looked like they could be the right one, but as Veritas had surmised, looks didn't mean much. Never forgetting to mark the passageways they'd gone through, in a week their group had cleared roughly half of the them, always reaching a dead end or leading around in a loop. Clearing them became much easier after having a unit with shields act as shields for the bowmen behind them. On the plus side, he hit level 60 the previous day, enabling him to finally use his Ironleaf throwing knives. As a result, he had a good feeling about today as they geared up to continue the exploration of the lair.

Like normal, they trudged to the cave dungeon and passed the barrier at the cave's end. They entered the passage they hadn't managed to completely explore and moved to the second junction. Upon entering the next one on the list, each member of the group could sense that something was different. The air was less stagnant and more... pungent. The stone floor looked heavily scuffed by constant travel as well. Although this one didn't look much different from most of the others, small details that would go unnoticed by inexperienced trackers stood out like an orange jumpsuit in a forest of green.

They advanced deliberately, front row consisting of Veritas and the shield bearers. Unlike the others in this set, no arachnids waited for them. Deeper and farther it went, far beyond the regular length of the other paths. It was as they finally exited into a large cavern that they were assaulted by the arachnids.

_What a mass! _Veritas was reminded of his bout with the spiders at the ley line as they attacked in similar numbers. _But this time, I've got a pretty sizable force behind me! _"Shields front, rangers draw bows!" He reached behind to feel his brand new throwing knives. _Now isn't the time for these. Just wait, my pretties, you'll see action soon. _Veritas raised his fists, grinning.

The battle was fierce, certainly. Wave after wave crashed against them, but the group pushed through, a wall of shields on the outside and bows on the inside. When the going got rough, a shield bearer would fall back into the center and let one of the bowmen fill the empty space. When the attackers slowed to a trickle and contented themselves with surrounding them, their group applied first aid quickly. Though they hadn't suffered a death, many of the elves had come close to it. Veritas oversaw their recovery with a frown.

_They're actually using tactics now. They bombarded us with acid spittle from a safe distance while the big Butchers bulled over us. When it seemed like they weren't making any real headway, they all fell back a bit, as if they're waiting for something to happen. _He finally took a look around at their surroundings, having been too busy in the heat of battle to do it before then. When the rows and rows of eggs lining the entire cavern came into focus, he blanched. _This place, it can't be..._

"Welcome to my domain, _intruders_."

The voice was gravelly, yet still retained a trace of femininity. The Spider Queen emerged from the darkness of the far end of the cavern, a humanoid torso on a huge arachnid body. Sharp, claw-like nails protruded from her hands. She was, by far, the largest arachnid yet, reaching a height of a little over three meters. The overlay above her showed her name and a level of 94. Veritas' face whitened further. Not only a boss monster, but twenty levels above even the superior-leveled elves. If she was any normal monster, he'd have given himself a 60-40 chance to kill her, being nearly evenly matched with his medley of bonus stats, but this was a boss. They weren't designed to be taken on one on one.

Seeing the leader's face pale so, she smirked. "I commend you on making it this far, but now you die. Look around you." She spread her arms wide. "My children surround you, and you stand on your last legs. This fight, is over. Surrender now and suffer a swift death. Do not, and my children will tear away at your flesh until your life is no more."

_Stay calm, Naruto. You've faced worse than this. The freaking Juubi took out entire towns with a single shot, this bitch has nothing on that monster. Yeah, sure, I'm weaker than I was at that battle, but so is she! This is a battle that I can win. Believe it!_

"I will not warn you again. Surrender now and-" Something thudded into her bosom, halting her words. She looked down, picking the throwing knife out of herself. The witch looked up at Veritas, who smiled grimly. "So this is your answer? Very well. KILL THEM!" she shrieked.

At the same time, Veritas drew his sword and pointed at the Spider Queen.

"CHARGE!"

Normally, the wood elves wouldn't follow such a suicidal order, but they were in a life-or-death situation, surrounded on all sides. Throwing caution to the wind to cut the snake's head off, everyone broke into a dead sprint. The elves drew their blades and took an arrow formation. The spearhead crashed through the line of arachnids directly in front of the Spider Queen, having been spread evenly all around the chamber. As soon as they were clear of the spiders, a senior wood elf raised a fist, signaling the wounded elves to hold position and form a rearguard. The healthiest elves ran on with Veritas towards their target.

At a distance of about ten meters, Veritas launched another throwing knife with a jump. The weapon, thrown by an expert who had trained half his life to properly use it, sang through the air faster and truer than any of the elves present could possibly imagine. A throwing knife was fundamentally closer to a shuriken than a kunai, tumbling end over end instead of flying straight. The superior weight and inertia of the throwing knife made it a better killing tool at the expense of range and speed. In the hands of a professional, however, the differences between the two weapon types became less and less pronounced as the skill and strength of the wielder grew.

She raised her arm and blocked the knife with the forearm. While she'd raised her guard, Veritas closed the distance rapidly, throwing knife in his left hand and sword in his right. Dual wielding was restricted to the Berserker class, but the throwing knife was considered a supplementary weapon, not a primary. And even with two weapons, few people could wield the second as skillfully as the first. This required ambidexterity and experience. Veritas had both of these, and he rushed in eagerly, hoping to end the fight with the Spider Queen's death before the rearguard took too many casualties.

The attack he expected came much faster than he'd thought possible, her nails seemingly cutting the air itself. He hastily blocked it with the throwing knife and swept in low with a sword swing aimed at the joints. Completely unlike her appearance, the agility with which she dodged again astonished him. He rolled beneath her abdomen to strike from behind even as the elves caught up and began firing off a fusillade.

_Khhhh, she's fast, but I'm faster! Eat this, Mighty Blow!_

He jumped off of the abdomen and aimed at her exposed, fleshy neck. She leaned forward and dodged, as he knew she would. Veritas let go of the sword mid-swing, letting it crash against the back of her neck. As she screamed in pain, he reached out swiftly, grasping her neck with firm hands before she could react. Even as the Spider Queen blocked another flight of arrows, hissing, he began to tighten his grip. The witch's weakness was that a good portion of her body was humanoid, and therefore susceptible to conventional attacks. Most players would have had trouble with her speed regardless, but Veritas wasn't most people. Her long nails prevented her from trying to pry his hands loose herself, so the witch bucked and whirled, trying to throw him off as her Health began to tick away from the arrows piercing her exposed flesh and his iron grip wringing the life out of her lungs. He could hear cries and screams as the rearguard began to buckle and even their position began taking attacks from the arachnid hordes. Half of the vanguard turned around and began firing down the incline, while the other half drew their sabers and closed in on the Spider Queen.

Finally, her arm found his leg, and she threw him off of her back. Veritas recovered with a roll and immediately blocked a scything attack with another throwing knife. He winced as he felt the mitigated damage lower his Health further. Blocking with weapons and shields used their Attack and Defense stat to reduce damage, respectively. Shields also had between a double and triple modifier to their Defense stat to coerce players into using a dedicated defensive equipment. It was now that he wished he had one, as the Spider Queen's ferocious, single-minded attacks left him on the defensive, even as his Health whittled down.

_God damn! _To his left and right, the elves were hacking away and trying to reach a joint, but she never stopped moving her legs, intent on preventing that. If one, two of her legs were made unusable, it would reduce her mobility enough for them to retake the offensive. _Come on, guys, I can't hold out like this forever!_

"You'll regret having crossed me!" She instinctively sensed his desperation, as only a beast could, and pressed on with her attacks. "I am the Wrath of Ahrah, oppose me and you oppose the forest!"

Several of the elves sheathed their weapons and began chanting, casting a spell. Lead by Velyn, they reached out and pronounced, "Ethereal Binding!" A series of translucent ropes sprung into existence, wrapping themselves around the Spider Queen's various limbs. The taut ropes did everything he'd hoped for, slowing her and restricting her movements. The remaining elves did not need any orders to know what they had to do next. With Veritas, they hacked and slashed away, and though none of them knew the magic to reveal an enemy's Health and Mana, everyone present could tell that her movements were becoming perceptibly sluggish and weak.

"Fools," she rasped, "Do you know who I am? I am wrath personified! If I fall, another will rise to take my place!"

Veritas remembered what the elder had told him, that the wood elves needed a representative to speak to the forest. "Stop, stop!" His yell brought the elven forces to a halt, perplexed at the order. "The rearguard should be on the verge of collapse. Go reinforce them and leave me to handle things here. She can't resist any longer."

They hesitated, unsure of leaving their mark standing. Velyn, Ayla, Ylisia, and Fyora, who had fought beside him for a month, had come to trust the man's judgment. When the subjugation forces saw the village heroes heeding the order, they too followed. When the last elf disappeared beyond the crest of the incline, Veritas turned his gaze upon his foe.

"Where is the previous High Priestess?" he demanded. "What have you done with her?"

"Nothing at all. I am merely the forest's wrath. I have no say in what the forest does."

Veritas narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean by that?"

The witch smiled widely, distorting her face. "Her connection with the forest became too great. She became _one _with the forest. Her wrath, the boiling of anger that she kept bottled up inside, became the forest's wrath. Her wrath became _me_." She licked her lips. "Although she is no more, you could very loosely say that... I am her. The elves' precious priestess became their condemner, how absolutely delightful. If only I could see the looks on their faces as they hear this revelation."

"Not if you die here, right now." His expression was grim. That'd be like finding out that Madara was actually his living father. It was a ridiculous thought, but if it'd been true the shock afflicted on him would've been tremendous, and he wouldn't wish such a thing on anyone, even an AI.

The Spider Queen's ecstatic expression turned dark immediately. "I'd like to see you try, boy. I may be weakened, but none of your little friends are here to help you now." She advanced slowly, nails and sharp limbs at the ready.

Veritas eyed his sword, lying on the floor six meters away to the witch's side. "I don't need help against you, not as you are now. I told them I'd take care of you, and I never, _ever_ go back on my word!" He lunged forward, throwing all seven of his remaining throwing knives at once. In the time it took her to raise a guard, he ran past and retrieved his fallen weapon. With not a moment to spare, he tossed it up and shifted into a stable stance, turning on the spot to duck under a swipe and deliver a crushing side punch to the Spider Queen's lower abdomen at the same time. In her weakened state, she reeled from the attack, and before she could recover or raise a guard, Veritas jumped level with her, spinning. He caught the sword as it fell and completed the spin, depleting the last of her Health and separating her head from her shoulders.

::::

**You have leveled up. **

**You have leveled up.**

**The Spider Queen, the Wrath of Ahrah, has been eliminated.**

**Due to an achievement, reputation has risen by 35.**

**Leadership has risen by 5.**

**Charisma has risen by 2.**

**New stat: Charisma**

Charisma

The ability to attract people. You become more attractive and charming and it becomes easier to tame pets and hire mercenaries. Craftsman can create even more detailed works.

::::

Veritas ran to the corpse, hastily scooping everything up without looking before running back to help the elves fight off the arachnids. Now feral after the loss of their queen, they could no longer coordinate their assaults properly. With this, the skilled and orderly elves counterattacked into the spiders, felling them rapidly. In twenty minutes, the battle was over. Veritas forewent applying first aid to first ascertain the number of casualties they'd suffered. They had come into the dungeon with fifty elves, and the fight had concluded with thirty-three survivors.

_One-third... _Deep down, Veritas knew that fighting on this scale guaranteed deaths. Countless people he knew and didn't know had died in the Fourth Shinobi World War. He'd had to fight the resurrected bodies of people he'd known and respected, even the other jinchuuriki. War was cruel, and he'd learned it firsthand. _But still... I just can't accept that. They might have been artificial, but AI are meant to be like real humans. It's easy to say that you can keep them at an arm's distance because they're a construct, but after spending so much time in close proximity with them, I was surprised at the deepness of their programming. At how real they seemed. At some point, AI will become truly indistinguishable from real humans. When that time comes, will people be able to say that they won't mourn for the loss of a friend, no matter how they came to be? _He looked to the exhausted elves. _And how can I tell them that their priestess is dead? And who could take her place?_

Veritas sat down, feeling a bit tired himself. He closed his eyes to meditate for a while. This section of the dungeon was clear and the elves would be able to take care of any feral stragglers that left their posts in the unexplored sections. After connecting to nature once, the second time was much easier. He didn't have to flail around as much, simply waiting intently and reaching out for the right sensation when it came. Again, he could see the forest as a whole, shining brilliantly with life and energy. By far, the two brightest spots in the Hearthwoods was the village and this dungeon. Elves were naturally attuned to nature's magic, and it showed even here, where their greater connection to nature reflected a brighter light.

That gave him an idea. He willed a closer inspection of both sites, examining the individual sparks of life. What he was looking for was the brightest light among them all, the one who would have the closest connection to nature, thus enabling nature to cycle a greater amount of magic through them and create a brighter incandescence.

_I wonder if the elves can do this. If they could, couldn't they have used this method to find a new High Priestess? Or maybe there are different stages to meditation and only a few elves can see what I'm seeing. Maybe it's being a citizen of Konoha and an experienced user of Sage Mode that lets me see what others can't. Huh, nifty. _

Bit by bit, he homed in on the brightest light. He narrowed it down to someone in his group, but he couldn't make out the individual. Veritas focused, getting down closer and slowly bringing some detail into his vision. Remaining calm became somewhat of an ordeal as the smudged imagery refused to sharpen any further. There she was, right there, but he couldn't figure out who it was. It was when she met with another three presences that he managed to narrow it down.

_There, that has to be _those four_. _He squinted in a vain attempt to make out any details. _That one to the left has to be Ayla, with that stance with the least confidence... The one on the far end is probably Ylisia, with those melons of hers. That leaves Fyora and Velyn... I can't really see either of them as a suitable candidate for High Priestess, much less having such a strong connection to nature. Maybe something's wrong with this view. Still... I would never have guessed that I was the Yondaime's son as a kid, or that my godfather would be one of the Sannin, or that my sensei would be one of the strongest shinobi in the village... I guess there's some merit in there being things beneath the surface that you can't predict. _

As he willed himself awake from his meditation and the lights fade out, he saw his target light approach him. Veritas opened his eyes. The elves were just about ready to move out. They'd recuperated, collected loot, and prepared the dead for transport. He felt a warm hand on his shoulder, one that had been in the process of attempting to shake him awake, not that it'd have worked. Veritas looked up at Velyn's sharp, beautiful features. This was the one, believe it or not. He stood up and matter-of-factly dusted himself off.

"The High Priestess... is gone," he announced, which caused immediate silence. "But, I've located a replacement. She is one of you, here, now, who fought the forces of the Spider Queen."

Fierce whispering broke out amongst the crowd, wild theories of the identity abounding, disbelief and doubt of his pronouncement of both the previous and future High Priestess, or simple unsureness. He ignored everything. He was used to being treated unfairly, and this was actually pretty tame. In this case, he really was an outsider that didn't really belong. It'd be like if a Kumo ninja had come waltzing into Konoha and declared something wild, that the Hokage was dead. It'd be hard to believe, even for someone with as big a heart and soul of trust and friendship as himself. Still, the truth was the truth, and though he detested lying and did so when it was absolutely necessary, either for his or another's sake, now was not the time or place for that. This was their liveliness at stake.

Veritas reached over and placed his hand on Velyn's shoulder. She looked at him, puzzled. "She is the new High Priestess."

"!"

This bombshell caused a miniature riot. How could a brand new Ranger be the new High Priestess? Her temper was notoriously short and she could dish out pride in spades. Moreover, she was one who'd fought with the human for a month together, what's not to say that she somehow convinced him to make this decision? It couldn't be, seduction?! Wild and wilder theories began to circulate rapidly. Even Velyn herself seemed shocked by his words, her eyes wide and lips parted in mid-exclamation, with not a single word or sound coming from her mouth. Those with a clearer state of mind noticed this and were convinced that the more ludicrous accusations couldn't possibly be true, but the situation was already way out of their control.

Veritas raised his sword, much thicker and heavier than the elven sabers, and likewise had a much deeper ring to it. He brought it down heavily, striking the rock floor and taking the hit to durability to get the elves' attention with a loud smash of metal.

"Enough. From what I found in my meditation, she has the greatest affinity with nature, whether she realizes it or not. As a human, I don't know how you select your High Priestesses, or by what criteria you deem them worthy. For that matter, neither would you, because it was the previous High Priestess who selected the next. However, what I do know is that you need someone to speak with the forest on your behalf, and the person who I judged capable of that was the person closest to nature in their heart and soul. If you have any objections, raise them now," he challenged. He'd always been good at winning people over verbally, and now was no exception. "Your village is in an unprecedented crisis." He'd again ply them with a plea of honor. "Would you, in jealousy, doubt, or distrust, harm the village like this when it's at its weakest? Save your complaints for when the crisis passes, and trust my decision. I told the elder that I would find a suitable replacement if the previous High Priestess couldn't be recovered. And, as you might have heard, I _never _go back on my word. That is my way."

Having cowed the elves, Veritas lead the way back to the village. A third time, he was met by the entire village, all eager to hear good news. And news they received, though whether it was good or bad would be decided by them. The elder conferred for some time with some of the veterans of the battle as well as other wizened wood elves.

In the end, she turned to him and smiled.

"Veritas, you have done us a great deed. Though a controversial choice, we have decided to trust in you, who, for this village, risked so much for so little. She placed two items in either of his hands.

::::

**Quest complete!**

**Ahrah Forest**

**The Spider Queen lays dead in her lair. No longer will she threaten the Wood Elves of Ahrah. And now, with a newly appointed High Priestess, they will be able to negotiate for peace directly with the forest. **

**Reputation increased by 40.**

**Familiarity with the Wood Elves of Ahrah increased by 30.**

**You have received Elven Compass.**

**You have received Spirit Stone.**

**Level up.**

**Level up.**

::::

"The first, the Elven Compass, will work in concert with the Elven Medallion. The compass does not point north. Instead, it will point to the nearest elven settlement, proof of our great trust in your honor and selflessness. The second, the Spirit Stone, is able to tame and contain the spirits of nature in direct relation to your own strength. If the power of the spirit outstrips that of its wielder, it will become more prone to disobedience or outright rebellion, so take heed."

"How many spirits can this hold?"

"The amount will be determined by your power. Level, leadership, charisma, and a host of other factors will be involved. For now, the stone can hold one spirit."

"Thank you, elder. I just don't have the words to say just how thankful I am for such useful items."

"Thanks is unnecessary, your actions have given us all the thanks we need. I can no longer ask more of you, the rest is up to us wood elves to solve. But Veritas, know that you will be welcome here at any time." She bowed her head slightly. "We are in your debt, and one day, we will make even on it."

xxxx

Naruto exited the capsule after logging out at Nylinas' house.

"**Well, if it isn't our sleeping beauty. Rise and shine, sweetums.**"

_Shut up, Kurama._

"**Living the sweet life in an artificial reality, are we?**" Kyuubi seemed to have finished going through the memories.

"You can hardly call it sweet," said the blond aloud. He was alone, who would be listening? Even if, anyone could mistake it for using the phone. Also, he was speaking Japanese. "Anyways, when I get back to Serabourg, it's payday. I'm going to sell off everything, and hopefully I got something rare off that boss."

"**Ah yes, money. I've been looking into the memories of your research. Money surely makes this world go 'round. Still, their level of technology is quite impressive. I'd say it would obsolete shinobi in most cases. In fact, I'd be a bit afraid if I had a thermonuclear weapon pointed in my ****direction. That's a whole different level of power and destruction to be in the hands of some weak-minded humans.**"

"Yeah well, good thing everyone's afraid to use it, right?" Naruto changed into outdoor clothes. "I'm off to train."

"**Your consideration of that crazy coot's offer?**"

"A tentative yes, but it's still too soon. I'm gonna make him work to get me."

Kyuubi laughed. "**Naruto, you're as easy to hook as a hooker. A promise to make you stronger, hook, line, and sinker.**"

"Shut _UP_, Kurama!"

xxxx


	8. Kangha Kumdo

**Chapter 8: Kangha Kumdo**

xxxx

Author's note: Mostly exposition. I tried considering cutting parts of it out, but then the conversations felt really weird. As always, please tell me what you think I'm doing right, or wrong. No author enjoys criticism, but any author worth his/her words appreciates constructive criticism from an objective reader. So, let me have it!

xxxx

Naruto hesitated at the door of the dojang. What he remembered of his time in school was sleeping and fooling around, because studying was boring. He had good instincts and could tell whether someone was telling the truth or not, but he couldn't look deeper. He couldn't figure out what other people were thinking, what they planned on doing, and why. Because he'd hardly studied at the Academy and because he lacked sufficient people skills, he knew almost nothing about how to read others.

No one could ever say that he wasn't a person that inspired others through his actions and engendered friendships. He got by with his roguish charm and sincerity. But Naruto knew that he was severely lacking in his ability to control his words and use them to convince others. It was now that his unique situation highlighted the severity his inadequacies, that he began an effort to improve himself, but without a proper mentor to guide him along, Naruto's progress could at best be considered minimal.

Because he couldn't grasp Kim Chung-hee's intentions, he was unsure of whether or not he could be trusted, which was why he was standing outside the dojang but not entering.

Lies and truth do not create trust. This, he knew from experience. A person can always tell the truth, and perhaps they could be trusted to tell the truth, but could they be trusted to do anything other than that? The nature of a soul does not reveal itself in telling truths or lies. Good people can tell lies to protect, and bad people can tell truths to harm. To give an example, Madara spoke what he believed were truths, yet one could hardly trust a man who would easily use and sacrifice others for his own purposes.

"**You'll never find out a being's nature without first speaking to them.**"

_I know that, Kurama. _

"**Then go in the damn building. You even made an appointment. Stop standing out here like some nitwit and grow some balls.**"

_I don't need to hear that from you, considering you're safe and sound in your oversized cage and don't need to do anything. This is easier said than done. Like, what if he turns out to be some pervert that enjoys sodomy?_

"**...**"

_Alright, alright, I'll go in. Just don't look at me like that. It creeps me out._

He reached out for the handle when the door swung open by itself. A fair, bespectacled woman stopped before she collided with him. She looked him up and down, taking in his nearly two meter height and Western complexion.

[You must be... Uzuki Naoto-ssi?]

Naruto nodded upon hearing his name. She ushered him in and then left on what was presumably a lunch break. The building was as spacious on the inside as it was on the outside, with wide, open spaces suitable for training. Naruto could see his mark, Kim Chung-hee, at the front of the dojang, directing several hundred would-be martial artists on several kata. Each of them wielded a wooden sword with both hands.

_So it's a two-handed style. I guess he does run his own dojo after all. That's one worry put to rest._

"**Sometimes you worry about the most inane things, kid.**"

_The chastity of my behind is _NOT _inane!_

Naruto watched silently, taking in how the old man swung as he positioned his body. It seemed to focus more on steadiness over speed, although that could be because he was teaching and not using the style in combat. Well, the claim of being a battle-worthy sword style would be one that he'd have to test personally.

During one particular motion which involved a short spin, he could see Chung-hee spot him, his eyes visibly brightening. The aging instructor finished the lesson vigorously in the next twenty minutes before hurrying up to the blond without a moment's rest.

"You've come. I've been expecting you. So, your name is Uzuki Naoto?"

"Uh, yeah, I thought I said it was over the phone."

"Interesting name. The Uzu's kanji means to swirl, symbolizing gaining strength. Even your name belies your potential."

[Master Kim, who is this?] Several disciples came up to the two as the rest of the trainees cleaned up and prepared to go home. [And why are you speaking Japanese to the man?]

[I speak Japanese because he speaks Japanese. There is nothing to hide from you, my disciples. He is another whose talent and potential I have identified, and I've seen him fit to learn our style.]

The ten disciples all bowed. Naruto looked them over.

_They're fit, confident, and respectful. They walk and stand with sureness, and their bodies are tense and ready to react. Or maybe they're tense because I'm tense. I really should learn to be more subtle, shouldn't I?_

"**Easy for you to say, mister Loudest and Most Unpredictable Ninja since the age of thirteen.**"

[Master Kim, if I may be so impertinent?] The young man's voice was soft spoken, but his gaze was so sharp that Naruto thought he might be cut.

[What is it, Ji-hoon?]

[I would respectfully ask to spar with your next disciple-to-be, Master Kim. To gauge his skills as a senior and an equal.] Ji-hoon bowed shortly. [I'm sure my fellow disciples would also like the same, to assuage our pride.]

[A hazing? Hah! I'll leave it to the man to decide.] Chung-hee turned to Naruto and relayed what'd been asked of him.

_A spar? Why? I thought I was only here to observe training? _Confused but certain he wouldn't lose, Naruto agreed to the request. _Well, this will be my opportunity to gauge this so-called eighth ranked sword style and see if it's worth learning. _

The rules were announced to be 'anything goes', within reasonable limits. No strikes that would cause long-term disablement and no striking the vital areas. Protective equipment was declared by Chung-hee to be 'for pussies, and my disciples are surely not pussies?' and so were omitted. One of the other disciples gave him their wooden sword, which he swung a few times.

_Pretty heavy, actually. Getting hit by one of these could hurt like a bitch._

Ji-hoon stood about four meters away, in a relaxed stance. Naruto made sure to watch very carefully at the swordsman in front of him as he moved into a fighting stance. Ji-hoon brought the sword up above his head in a sword stance that reminded Naruto of a samurai. Well, there were a limited number of viable positions a swordsman could take before a battle. Like with taijutsu, you could take an offensive, defensive, or even stance. This one, with the sword raised and poised to fall and strike, was obviously an offensive one.

Naruto used what he knew, stepping into the style that he'd learned by watching Weed. As he did so, an audible gasp escaped those watching the spar.

[That's the basic stance of the Daewang Kumdo!]

[What's a rival dojang's member doing here?]

[Beat his ass into the ground, Ji-hoon!]

He paid the murmurs of a language he couldn't understand no mind, although the immediate hardening of Ji-hoon's expression on top of that tipped him off that something was wrong. Still, they were in the middle of something, and he couldn't afford to be distracted. Naruto knew that he was a newbie at sword fighting, and while he had an advantage in every physical aspect, he lacked experience, skill, and technique. He possessed frightening strength, but Kakashi had proven time and time again that proper and intelligent use of force could put a lesser man on his footing.

As soon as Chung-hee dropped his hand as the signal to start, Ji-hoon closed the gap quickly in three long strides. Naruto raised his sword sideways, blocking his opponent's crushing overhead slash. The unexpected strength behind the attack caused his sword to tremble and nearly give way, but Naruto steadied himself. Although he knew nothing of swordsmanship, he'd fought his fair share of sword users, so he imitated them.

Using his superior strength, Naruto knocked the sword away with his own, then curved it back for a chest-high swing. Ji-hoon calmly hopped back just out of reach of the blade and came back in as it passed by. Copying Naruto's strike, Ji-hoon swung at chest height. He blocked the attack using his sword and arm, wincing at the force behind it.

_That one hit even harder than the first. I didn't even know normal people could hit this hard! Though... this guy, is he making fun of me by showing that what I can do, he can do better? _

Both fighters backed off and began circling each other slowly, looking for an opening to attack decisively.

_Waiting this long really isn't my style, ugh... _Still, Naruto waited for his opponent to move first. Being impatient had proven to him for the umpteenth time, not only in this world but back home, that it was a dangerous and foolish thing to do. That still didn't make it easy to restrain himself.

Ji-hoon advanced again, wooden sword raised. He swung down just like his first attack, but when Naruto raised his guard, he shifted the sword to pass by the raised hilt and angle back for the side. Naruto reversed his grip and pointed his sword straight down to block, lessening the damage he took. He fell back to regroup, but his foe dogged his footsteps, fiercely bearing down on him with strong, fast strikes. He was stronger and faster, but Naruto cursed his lack of knowing how to properly block or deflect with a sword. And it wasn't like he could suddenly break out the acrobatics like he did in Royal Road, or else he'd suddenly have a lot of attention he didn't want or need.

_Fuck this. _

Finally fed up, Naruto dropped his sword completely, much to the disbelief of those around him, as Ji-hoon performed another overhead attack. Spreading his legs wide, he smashed the side of the descending sword with his open palm. With Ji-hoon's sword hand flying to the side, Naruto used the opening to step forward into a gut-wrenching knee strike, the force of the blow lifting the young man up several centimeters and expelling all of the air in his lungs. As Ji-hoon landed unsteadily, he then shifted into a stable stance side punch, ending the fight by sending his opponent sprawling head over heels across the floor.

Everyone but Chung-hee remained silent, the sword master clapping appreciatively. "Your swordsmanship was horrendous, but your martial arts, on the other hand, were very impressive. Very few have the courage, timing, or reflexes to knock aside a blade as you just did." He turned to his disciples, who each had mutinous expressions. [And the rules _did _say that anything went.] "So, did you manage to grasp a bit of our Kangha style?"

"... I think so, a little. The entire fight, my opponent didn't even once go on the defensive. He only attacked and dodged. He used really obvious attacks with a lot of strength and speed behind it."

"Correct. Our Kangha Kumdo revolves around offense. Our only defense is in not getting hit back. By focusing exclusively on the speed and strength of our style, and using a variety of stances and kata to maximize them, practitioners of our style overpower their enemies with ease. Some ask why we are are so confident when we are only the eighth strongest style. I ask, what is wrong with being eighth? There are hundreds of sword styles in Korea, and just as many in neighboring China and Japan. To be eighth among many is a distinction, not a failing. And no sword style is perfect. The rankings for sword forms are determined through tournament brackets. No matter how superior a sword form is, if the practitioner cannot wield it to its fullest potential, it will be the equal of lesser styles. That is how we came to occupy the eighth rank."

"So... you had the potential to be ranked higher, but you weren't skilled enough, strong enough, or fast enough to use this Kangha style ideally?"

"Sadly, yes. Even more so as this body continues to age." Chung-hee again turned to his disciples. [You see? The advantage of one who is strong, fast, and flexible, of one who can think out of the box. No amateur could have pulled off that final move, not in a million years. They would lack the training, experience, and fortitude to pull off such a risky and dangerous technique that is a bare-handed sword deflection. Empty your mind of your prejudices and accept this young man's skills for what they are.]

[But his initial stance...]

[Was obviously all he knew of the Daewang Dojang's style.] He gave them each a stern look. [He probably saw the stance somewhere and imitated it. As you saw, he is woefully lacking of skill with the sword.]

[That's true.]

[He didn't even know how to block or parry.]

[His footwork was atrocious as well.]

[But Master, even if we leave our prejudices behind, how do we train with someone who doesn't speak our language?] The speaker was female, one of two in the group of nine. [How can we be expected to communicate with him when we do not know Japanese?]

[That... is something I'll figure out later, Ha-eun.]

[Haa... so irresponsible...] Ha-eun put her hands on her hips. [Also, how will you explain making someone a disciple before they've even been a trainee and learned the basics of both the sword and of our style? The trainees won't appreciate this special treatment.]

[He may have no experienced with the sword, but his experience in martial arts and his fit body will make it vastly easier to adapt to the sword. I treat him specially because he's a special person. When I say that I see potential, it means he has amazing potential. Won't you trust this old man?]

She sighed. [Well, alright. Anyways, Ji-hoon was the best among the disciples, so I doubt we'd stand a chance. With that out of the way, I'll be going home then, Master.]

[Mm, get home safely.]

She bowed and left, at which point the others also said their goodbyes, bowed, and left. It took Ji-hoon a little longer to recover. When he did, he bowed slightly to Naruto, accepting his defeat graciously, and thanked him for the spar. With Chung-hee acting as a temporary translator, he complemented the disciple on his skills and thanked him back for the spar. The fierce gaze of the defeated disciple was undisguised, and it didn't take a master to know what it meant: that he fully intended to become stronger and defeat this blond newcomer.

_Looks like martial artists have about as much pride and honor as the samurai do at home._

"So." Chung-hee sidled up to him as Ji-hoon left. "It didn't look like you were completely new to the way of the sword. Where did you learn it?"

"Royal Road."

"Ohh, that newfangled video game? From where?"

Naruto scratched his head. Explaining virtual reality to this geezer would be about as troublesome as explaining to Kyuubi. "Application, I guess." He went on to explain what he knew about virtual reality and the 99% reality factor of Royal Road. "So, since your brain is sending signals to the machine instead of your body, it factors that in so that you can move within the game. So, strength inside Royal Road is dependent on reflexes, skill, and experience, since that's all you can bring from the real world into the virtual world."

"Interesting. And your stance?"

"Speaking of that stance, it seemed your disciples had a bit of a problem with it."

Chung-hee chuckled. "Yes, they would. That stance is one used by practitioners of the Daewang Kumdo. The leader of the Daewang Kumdo Dojang is a longtime acquaintance of mine, Ahn Hyundo. He is the current ranked first among swordsmen in Korea and is one of the best in the world. He once held the top global position for four years straight."

Naruto whistled appreciatively. "So I guess you've got a bit of a rivalry going, then?"

"Haha, all of the best dojangs have a rivalry with one another. Without some healthy competition, we are all liable to fall into complacency, you see."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Naruto reappraised the old man, who seemed really down-to-earth. "You know, at first I thought you were some crazy, but you're not all that bad. Well, I guess it's not wrong to be eccentric, especially at your age."

"And it's rather refreshing to be spoken to with such an insolent tone by a youngster like yourself."

"Insolent?"

"Here in Korea, as well as Japan, we place a great degree of importance in expressing the proper amount of respect to one's elders, family, and superiors. To the point of having a bunch of sycophantic suck-ups, sometimes."

"Blech."

"Yes, it can get tiring at times." Chung-hee turned and met his gaze. "So, tell me more about this Royal Road."

xxxx

Now that he was at a level where he could simply break through every mob in his way, the trip back to Serabourg was leisurely. His increased agility also meant that the distance could be traveled in less time than before. It'd been several days since he completed the final quest. Actually, he'd stayed to watch the coronation ceremony of Velyn. While it seemed all elves were handsome and beautiful, Velyn, dressed in the finest silks, had been a sight to behold. She'd been a little red-faced, unused to showing off the amount of skin the dress revealed and causing her to seem very demure.

Even though he'd seen his fair share of nude bodies as a kid, seeing women after puberty was an entirely different monster. Veritas just hoped that he'd done the right thing. He felt a little bad that he'd had to keep the previous priestess' ultimate fate secret. But, as with many of the secrets involving his own life, they'd served to protect him until he was ready for them.

_Call me a coward, but... I think I understand what Saru-jiji was feeling when he kept the secret of the Uchiha clan's massacre from Sasuke. If the wood elves started fighting Rosenheim Kingdom, they wouldn't last long. It was something I had to do, for everyone's sake. One day, they'll understand why I kept this secret from them. _

Veritas passed by several other people, and even managed to spy a merchant caravan near the horizon. He smiled, enjoying how much like a real world Royal Road was. It was a world full of vibrant life, with players and NPCs alike populating an ever-changing landscape. The continent was massive, scaled to real-world size, and so travel between locations often took days, if not weeks depending on the route. Safe routes tended to take longer, winding around geographical features like mountains and also avoiding areas where monsters spawned, while dangerous routes took less time but barreled through every obstacle. Very few players had access to teleport magics, being both high-level and very costly to use. So, for the vast majority of players, they took to walking or using horses to travel across the continent.

Veritas reached Serabourg in just under two days, since Ahrah Forest wasn't too far from the capital of Rosenheim. When he reached the eastern gate, Veritas waited for Kirhi and Gunter. They knew he was coming, having messaged them once before leaving Ahrah Forest and again when Serabourg came into view, and promised to meet him at the gate. Thirty minutes later, he he could be found at the gate, tapping his feet in impatience. If he could just be doing something, the wait would be easier, like when he was swinging that accursed sword for four weeks straight. Just waiting with nothing to do, though, made him fidgety and agitated. Finally, Veritas opened up the message window to send a whisper.

Veritas: Where are you?

Gunter: Sorry, we're almost there! Just hang tight.

True to his word, the pair appeared a few minutes later.

"Sorry for being so late, Veritas-nim, we got caught up selling our loot by some guy who wouldn't stop trying to haggle."

"Yeah," chimed Kirhi, "I had to offer some _encouragement _to get him to leave." She smiled wickedly while conjuring up a small fireball.

"So what've you two been doing all this time?"

"Oh, this and that," Gunter replied airily. "Mainly, I was-"

"Nearly killed himself out of boredom at the Training Hall." Kirhi chortled. "I've been dabbling a bit there myself, if only to gain some Health and Stamina."

"Ah... How was it, Gunter-nim?"

"Terrifying." He shivered, fingers twitching and breaking out into a cold sweat at the mere thought of going back to finish the training. "I don't know how anyone could finish that hellish course in just a month."

"Well, trying to do it in a month might be overdoing it. That's pretty much the fastest you can complete it, and unless you're an idiot like me, it'd probably be too much for anyone."

"Speaking of what we were doing, how about you?" asked Kirhi. "Gunter told me that you were in Ahrah Forest."

"Ah, oh, well, you know, doing some quests." Veritas scratched his head, unsure of what to say or how to say it.

"That's the thing isn't it, Gunter?"

"Indeed, Kirhi, there shouldn't be any quests in Ahrah Forest."

"At least, not that the public is aware of. So, do tell us, Veritas-nim."

He laughed feebly. "Oh, well, I was helping out the wood elves living there."

"Ah, I see, wood elves... _what wood elves_?" Kirhi demanded, getting in Veritas' face. "Don't tell me you were off doing secret, rare, awesome quests without us?!"

"Ah, no, not really. I wouldn't describe quests as secret or awesome. I just kind of stumbled onto them and helped them out a little, but it wasn't anything too serious."

"Hnnn, nothing too serious, huh? Then why did it take so long?" she continued to hound.

"Y'know, the Hearthwoods are a high level danger zone, and I spent a while there to train, using the wood elf village as a jumping-off base. I was pretty under-leveled to do the quests, you see."

Kirhi stared at him for a moment, before laughing. "Well, it's not all that important. Gunter _did _say that we were too weak to go to the Hearthwoods." She jabbed Veritas with her elbow. "I bet you got a bunch of rare items, didn'cha?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "I'll show them to you later, after we figure out where to go."

"Ah, I hope you don't mind if we meet someone before we do that?" Gunter pointed back at Serabourg.

"Oh!" she clapped her hands together. "Thanks Gunter, I nearly forgot about that. Come on, Veritas-nim, there's someone we'd like you to meet."

"Sure, I don't mind. Lead the way."

They chatted idly as they walked, though they lacked conversational topics outside of Royal Road.

When they reached Serabourg Square, Gunter pointed to the distance. "There she is."

Veritas followed the finger at a sea of people. How was he supposed to figure out who out of the number of people Gunter was pointing at? When he focused his vision, he saw what had stood out to his party-mate. The only person standing still and obviously waiting for someone. That had to be the one. Now that he could see her, he wondered how he didn't notice her before.

While she wasn't a stunning beauty, she stood a cut above the rest of the average female player. Her long, stunning red hair reminded him of his mother's, and her sharp, emerald eyes gave off a dignified, strong-willed feeling. Veritas wondered how she'd come to meet Gunter and Kirhi.

_Maybe they offered her help like they did with me. That'd make the most sense. _

As they moved closer, they could see that she was being bothered by a number of male fellows. From this distance, all he could hear were snippets, but he seemed to hear mentions of 'party' and 'benefits'. It seemed beauty could work against women when it came to the often chauvinistic and disgraceful behavior of men, especially when veiled by anonymity.

"Aine-ssi, over here!" Gunter called, waving and showing that she had plans with other people already. Seeing the trio of higher-leveled – which one could usually tell by a person's armor – approaching, they knew that new players like themselves wouldn't stand a chance in a confrontation and left.

"Gunter-nim, Kirhi-nim," she greeted as she came over. "And who may this be?"

"Veritas." He held out a hand. "Pleasure to meet you, Aine-nim."

She took his hand, shaking it. "Please, no need to be so formal, Veritas-nim. Any friend of Kirhi-nim and Gunter-nim is a friend of mine."

"Then I'll insist likewise, you don't need to be formal to me either. And on the topic of those two, I'm guessing they helped you out of a tight spot?"

"Yes, they were passing by as I was being harangued by several males. Being new to virtual reality, they tried to take advantage of me when I was timely... 'rescued'. They taught me what I needed to know to succeed at this stage in Royal Road."

"Mhm. They also helped me out of a bind. Kept my equipment when I died like a complete fool and helped me level."

"That sounds just like them."

"Like I said, we're kind of a pair of goody two-shoes." Kirhi rummaged through her pack, looking for something. "Aine-ssi, I brought what you asked for. It was pretty hard, even for us, so I hope you'll put it to good use." She withdrew a small gem and handed it to the redhead.

"Thank you so much, Kirhi-nim, Gunter-nim. It was just what I needed to complete the requirements to class change into an Acolyte."

"Acolyte?"

"Veritas-nim, you haven't heard? It's a secret class that eventually leads to the Paladin class," Gunter explained helpfully. "It was recently discovered but the people who've changed classes are being awfully tight-lipped about the conditions."

"Ah, right, I think I read up a little about secret classes before."

"Yeah, you normally can't change classes unless it's to a secret class or your class advancement."

"Thanks, Gunter-nim."

"It's bothering me a little, but why are the two of you so formal to Veritas-ssi?" Aine looked him up and down. "He said you helped him, but you're the ones being so respectful instead."

Kirhi grinned, recalling memories of how they met. "Oh, that. Well, we helped him out, yeah, but then he impressed us with his awesome martial arts. The guy's like a master or something, or at least a black belt. Veritas-nim's superb skill helped us out of a lot of pinches so we really respect him."

"I see."

He knew she was appraising him. Veritas knew that he looked kind of laid back and upbeat most of the time, so it was understandable for a person of this world to not be able to immediately see the various nuances that set apart a shinobi from a civilian. Still, she was pretty and polite, so he understood why Gunter and Kirhi had wanted him to meet her. Speaking of things to do on the side...

_Oh man, I forgot about going to the market! I need to sell and identify my loot. Well, I think I can fit it in when we're shopping for supplies. _

"My apologies, I'm afraid I should be going now."

"Oh, no need to apologize, Aine-ssi."

"Yeah, we were the one striking up conversation anyway." Kirhi nudged Veritas out of his thoughts.

"Oh, uh... it was nice meeting you."

Aine bowed before leaving, leaving Gunter and Kirhi to snicker at Veritas' awkward sending off.

"S-Shut it! I've always been bad at saying goodbyes. Anyways, let's go to the market, I have some things I need to do."

Leaving the two to shop for supplies, Veritas made for the Identification Shoppe. It was very crowded, full of users who wanted to identify unidentified items. Identifying items could be compared to a lottery. One could hit or miss, get something absolutely valuable or completely worthless. Still, you couldn't help but identify on the off chance that an item would be worth it. The Item Identification skill was limited to craftsman and magic classes, and even among those classes the skill wasn't leveled up often. So when shops like this aggregated a number of skilled identifiers, it immediately became a point of interest for many people.

He stood in line in the first floor, reserved for basic checks. The second floor was set aside for uncommon items that couldn't be identified with just the basic skill level, while the third and highest floor was dedicated to the rarest identifications that would require a high mastery of the Item Identification skill. While he waited, Veritas occupied himself with listening in to the cries of anguish and joy among various people as they determined the worth of their items. More often than not, it was that of anguish that he heard, given the abysmally low rate at which uncommon and unique items popped up.

After a little under two hours, it was his turn. He paid a premium of five silvers per identification, which totaled out to just over two gold. As he'd feared, one by one, the items that were checked turned out to be common and hardly worth much. All but five of his items were revealed to be common. The remaining ones were unable to be identified, so he was referred upstairs to have someone with a higher skill proficiency have a look at it.

_These are the items I got off the Spider Queen. Hoo, I'm a bit nervous, after all. Getting common trash after all the trouble I went through would be a horrible feeling. _

The second floor was quieter by some, being less crowded. It was still full of users, but not unbearably so. Again, he stood in line, which passed by a lot quicker. This time he paid twenty-five silvers for each identification, and he handed over the gold and silver while despairing inside. He'd made quite a bit in Ahrah, but expenses tended to rack up significantly and quickly. Still, he paid the price since he didn't have the skill. Three of the items turned out to be uncommons for different classes that he could sell for a reasonable amount, and the last two were referred to the top floor.

Here, there were no open spaces. Every identifier had their own room for their customer's privacy. Here would be where the highest rate of rare and unique items would show up, and it would be important for the customer to find out the nature of an item while not screaming it out to the world like in the lower levels. Veritas picked one of the unoccupied rooms at random. A blond male wizard greeted him, commenting that he didn't seem the type to come up to this floor often.

"My first time, actually."

"I see, I see. Well, I hope you're prepared to spend a little, because the identification costs for the third floor are fifty silvers per."

_F-fifty... After this, what do my costs come out to? Four or so, plus one or so, plus one... Around seven gold? Ugh..._

"Well, it's always a gamble, but we users can't really afford to not check, can we?" He handed over the money.

"That's right, it's really tough without the skill. The first time here is what compels a lot of players to get the skill and level it up, but it's not quite so easy. Lots of mindless identifying involved, you see, and people lack the patience to go through with it."

"I understand how they feel. I really, really do. I'm trying to level my Repair skill, but it's going so damn slow."

"Yes, that's pretty much one of the major reasons why the craftsman classes are so disliked. Now, let's take a gander at your items and hope for the best, shall we? Item Identification. Item Identification."

The information of both items hovered in real-time. One was an uncommon, but the other...

::::

**Claws of the Spider Queen**

**Durability: 110/110**

**Damage: 44-50**

**The Spider Queen once used this weapon to great effect against the Wood Elves of Ahrah. Made of her strong, yet light carapace, it possesses excellent damage and durability. However, its brittleness causes durability to decrease faster with prolonged use.**

**Restrictions:**

**Combat classes only.**

**Level 100.**

**Attributes:**

**Strength +25, Agility +25.**

**Attack Speed +15%.**

**Enchantment 'Piercing Claws'**

Piercing Claws

Negates the armor rating of cloth and leather armor. Reduces armor rating of metal armor by 20%.

::::

Veritas whistled. It was an impressive weapon, for sure, even if it was for claw users. Without Claw Mastery, a skill set belonging primarily to the Thief class and its subclasses, and the innate bonuses to claw weaponry granted by the proper classes, he'd never be able to wield it to its maximum potential like he could with a sword.

_Maybe I could sell it, but... that description... Would it tip people off that there are wood elves in Ahrah? … Probably. That'd most likely cause trouble for them. Maybe I'll just hold onto it for a while, since it's the best weapon I have and probably will have for a long time... Yeah, I'll do that._

Veritas thanked the identifier before leaving to find his party at the market. Not long after entering the marketplace, several Merchants came up to him, attracted by the large pack he carried on his back, asking whether he had loot to sell, each trying to cut above the other in the prices they offered. He stayed silent as the merchants continued to outbid one another until finally only one remained.

"Sir, I can offer 20% of the store value for all of your loot, rather than the 2% you'd get by pawning them off to an NPC."

"But wouldn't you have a negative margin?" asked Gunter, appearing at Veritas' side. "What do you get out of that?"

"Yes, I'd lose money, but it's important to level up the Item Trading skill, even if I have to suffer losses, otherwise my profit margin will never be high enough for me to become a successful merchant."

"Hm, makes sense. I did accrue a bit of loot over the last month, but do you have enough money to buy it all?" Veritas opened up his pack and upended it, allowing a large amount of loot to fall out. Skins, meats, raw materials, and common equipments fell out in spades. At the sight of the arachnid carapaces, the look on the merchant's face faltered.

"I'm afraid I don't have the resources to relieve you of those higher level items, but everything else, I can take in. The total for those should come up to... 27 gold."

"Deal." Veritas took the gold and packed up the items that hadn't managed to sell. Knowingly, he left a few of them in a small pile. "On the house," he offered with a grin, before leaving. He knew how tough poverty was. Technically, he was already riding the line by constantly resupplying, lacking the skills to provide for himself.

"That was pretty nice of you, to leave a bit to minimize that guy's losses," chirped Kirhi. "I guess you're one of us, a goody two-shoes, after all."

"Eheh, I wouldn't go that far. I've done some questionable things before, like vandalizing a monument."

"Whuaaah? I'd never have guessed!" Gunter exclaimed, mouth wide open. "That'd seriously take a lot of guts to do, defacing a public memorial like that."

"Yeah well, I was kind of an idiot when I was younger. Hindsight is 20/20, as they say. So, any suggestions on where we should head?"

"Mm, not particularly. What about you, Kirhi?"

"I'm feeling up for a bit of a brighter environment. Wherever is fine, but the area around Serabourg is starting to get pretty dull and same-y."

"I've had enough of forests for a while, myself. How about heading somewhere northwards?"

"Ooh, I'd like to see some snow. Oh, don't look at me like that, Gunter!"

"I don't like the cold..."

"It might get a bit chilly, probably, but I don't think we're prepared to go far enough north to be freezing. We don't have the right clothing for that either."

"Yeah Gunter, it'll just be chilly. Just buy some insulating leather armor and you'll be fine!"

"Easy for you to say, considering you have fire magic and Veritas-nim has more layers on."

"Ehh, I think wearing metal in the cold wouldn't be all too helpful."

Gunter sighed. "I see that I'm the minority here, so I guess I have no choice. Should we go west or east?"

"West. I have a good feeling about west. There's a lot more space as well, since Rosenheim is close to the eastern edge of the continent."

"Let's go with what Veritas-nim says, then."

"Right, northwest it is. Kirhi, you get some cold weather supplies. I'll go find some wood."

"Wood?! Why!"

"What if it gets cold and there aren't any trees around? What then?"

Veritas smiled to himself, watching the two friends banter with each other. _Ah, friendship. Isn't it so beautiful? _Laughing, they set off for a new adventure.

xxxx


	9. Helmstad

**Chapter 9: Helmstad**

xxxx

Yes, this chapter is a bit late. I've had other stuff to do, and I hit some writer's block. Nothing a bit of brainstorming couldn't fix. As always, tell me what you think I'm doing right or wrong, and give me suggestions on how to improve current chapters, the existence of plot holes, and so on.

Random Noname: Thanks for your review. You're right, I completely got caught up in tunnel vision and really forgot to focus on more of the side details by trying to focus on a coherent plot. I'm not above going back into older chapters and editing them for continuity's sake or for better character development, so I'll take your review to heart. Though please, do make a fanfiction account so I can actually reply to you in person.

xxxx

Veritas and crew trudged on, having traveled for the past ten days. Now that they were approaching the Briton Confederacy's borders, they had to be careful. As residents of Rosenheim Kingdom, a nation with neutral relations with the Confederacy, they'd be able to pass unmolested. If they got involved in an altercation though, they might be barred entrance. So far, the trip had been peaceful. The main road running between the two nations was regularly patrolled by soldiers, so it was mostly free of monsters and Player Killers.

It would be directly before the border on either side, where the soldiers were pulled to man the guard posts, that it would become dangerous. This was especially so because the particular road they were on ran through a massive prairie.

Still, with Veritas at the ready, neither Gunter nor Kirhi feared what would come. There was always the off chance that a high level rogue might ambush them, but they generally kept away from lower leveled players who wouldn't have as much plunder to offer.

Veritas whistled a tune as they went. He was mostly unused to traveling so slowly, but taking in the scenery while doing so was a surprisingly nice change of pace. All the things he'd always been too busy to notice, the landscape, the plants, flowers, trees, animals, the beautiful blue sky, now that he could take his time, it was a wonderful sight to behold.

_It really makes me feel bad that I never took the time to do this before. Well, as the saying goes, if you're not making mistakes, you're not doing anything. _

::::

**New stat: Art**

Art

A gift in comprehending and practicing beauty, art renders meals and products elegant in an aesthetic and practical sense.

Improves when you see, hear, smell, taste, or touch beautiful things, or create artwork.

::::

_What the-... Art stat? The heck? Well, it's true I've been seeing beautiful things, but really? An art stat? Will I need that...? I guess we'll see..._

"Hey, Gunter-nim, Kirhi-nim."

"What is it, Veritas-nim?" replied the two at the same time.

"Do you guys have an Art stat?"

Gunter looked slightly perplexed. "Uh, no we don't, why?"

"Yeah, that question totally came out of left field, Veritas-nim."

"Oh, no reason really. I just got the stat and I was wondering if it was just me. That's weird."

"That _is _weird. Why do you think that's so, Gunter?"

"Hmm... as far as I know, the Art stat is mainly for craftsmen. We _do _know that Veritas-nim has put in a fair amount of work into the Repair skill, which will grant the Blacksmithing skill when it reaches Intermediate Level 1. Maybe it's a result of having a high enough level of a prerequisite skill? I don't think you need to worry too much over it."

"So he says, Veritas-nim."

"Well... that does sound sensible. Thanks, Gunter-nim."

"Haha, you're welcome."

As he traveled on with his party, he'd tried probing for their lives in reality with an innocent question here or an offhand remark there. Merely out of curiosity. Strangely, the two of them were unusually tight-lipped about the matter.

_Well, so am I, so I can't really blame them. _

In the distance, Veritas noticed a merchant caravan heading their way through the prairie. When several figures rose from the tall prairie grasses, the merchants flinched and recoiled. For a moment, he thought they might've been debt collectors – they always had a way of appearing when you least wanted them to – but when the first fireball was thrown, that idea was dashed against the rocks.

"Hey!" cried Gunter, noticing as well, "Those people are under attack by player killers!"

"Let's go, Gunter!"

Veritas shrugged, before following them. If this were in reality, he'd have pinned the assailant before any harm could come to the victim. This was virtual reality though, and all the merchants would lose would be a few levels and their money. Now, if it was in his ability to help, he would do so. Helping the weak was part of his nindo. But the lesson he learned from fighting Madara had been that you couldn't save everyone. You could try, and in most cases save most of the people, save all of them in some, and none in others.

In a world where a player's fear of death only extended to a loss of monetary and tangible strength, he felt it would be unnecessary to risk himself in every fight that threatened someone's life. One might say he was a hypocrite after risking so much for the Ahrah wood elves, but he'd stand by that NPCs only had one life.

Between immortals and mortals, it was obvious whose death would be more serious.

_Then again, maybe this business of reviving after you die is helping to desensitize players to death, which is probably a bad thing. Sure, the players wouldn't spurt blood or die grotesque deaths, but a death is a death no matter how you die. _

He passed Gunter and Kirhi, both of whom were bombarding the bandits with long-range attacks. There'd be no need for his sword this time, since humanoids almost always had less defense than monsters. He deftly dodged a fireball and ice bolt launched by the two bandit Wizards. The magical attacks were slower and weaker than normal because they were simultaneously casting Barrier spells to block his party's attacks. Without the use of both hands, neither spell could operate at peak efficiency. Dual-wielding Wizards tended to sacrifice that speed and power for versatility.

To Veritas, these spells might as well be traveling at a snail's pace compared to his superior senses and reflexes. Brandishing his fists, Veritas leapt into the melee, crossing paths with two enemy Rogues, one hooded and the other masked.

Both of them had red diamond marks on their foreheads and their red-colored names hovered over them. This was the sign of a player killer, setting them apart from normal players, who could pose as NPCs if they wished. Player killers did not have that luxury. On the other hand, players who killed PKers received benefits in the form of increased reputation, the occasional monetary compensation, and an increased drop rate of the PKer's rare items upon death.

These two PKers looked a little surprised that a heavily armored player – _obviously _not a monk – was closing in with just his fists and dodging all the spells, but remained calm and collected.

The hooded rogue lashed out with his dagger, which Veritas promptly avoided by palm striking the fist clenching the weapon. Like in his fight with Ji-hoon, Veritas used the temporary opening he created to step in with the knee to side punch combo. Moments after completing the combo, he grabbed the wrist of the masked rogue, who had taken the opportunity to get behind him. In a feat of strength, given his relatively low Strength stat compared to typical Warriors, Veritas threw the bandit into the air and swept from a half-twirl – to build up momentum – into an attack, striking with both his fist and elbow at precisely the same time and point, stepping forward as he did so to further increase the damage through momentum.

Unlike with Ji-hoon, both of the Rogues got back up on their feet. This time, they kept their distance, wary of the unusually fast Warrior and obviously experienced martial artist. The two bandits began to circle him in opposite directions. It was an obvious delaying tactic, meant to keep him from reaching the convoy proper. Because they couldn't expect support from the Wizards, who were now embattled with Veritas' two party mates, they were splitting his attention and preventing him from making any rash moves, lest he be attacked from all sides at once.

_I don't have time to wait around like this, though, and they know it. There's only so much Kirhi and Gunter can do from that range, and if these guys decide to use the merchants as human shields, there wouldn't be anything they could do. So... I guess it's all up to me again. Well, fighting alone does have its advantages, like not having to worry about the people around you. So, let's get to it. _

Veritas dashed at the expectant hooded rogue. Noting that these enemies were particularly sharp-witted and adapted well to changing conditions, he started off his attack with a flying ax kick. When the bandit raised his dagger up in defense, hoping to take his leg, he retracted it and fell into a sprinting start position. Veritas barreled into the rogue's abdomen at close to his top speed, sending the man rolling headlong into the caravan's carts.

He then quickly side-flipped away from the masked bandit's slash, jumping up immediately after landing to gain the height advantage. Veritas whipped up six of his throwing knives and threw them, the deadly wave of metal providing yet another surprise for the player killers. He closed in quickly, even as he heard the a disbelieving remark about a Warrior using throwing knives, unsheathing his sword.

The masked rogue tried to retreat, his dagger at a range disadvantage to a sword. Under normal circumstances, he'd have put confidence in his superior agility to outmaneuver a sword wielder, but this one, though a Warrior, fought very much like a top-class Rogue. Unfortunately, he was just a step too slow, and before he could fall back, Veritas ran him through.

Even as the bandit's skin began to turn gray, Veritas pulled out the sword, tossed it into the air, and threw the spinning weapon at the other rogue. The bandit, just having gotten to his feet, looked up to see death bearing in on him. The sword impaled the hooded player to the cart, leaving his graying body dangling. Soon, both dead players disappeared in a flash of gray, leaving behind a pile of some of their items.

The bandit Wizards, seeing both Rogues down, followed by the death cry of another bandit on the other side of the convoy, decided to run away with all due speed. Deciding it wasn't worth the effort, Veritas stooped down to pick up the fallen items of the dead.

_These guys didn't have much on them, did they? Maybe they were robbing these guys out of desperation or something._

"Thanks for the timely help." A merchant turned the corner, bloodied from what must've been his battle with the other bandit. "Thank god you took care of the guys over here. I had my hands full just dealing with that Warrior, even with my significant level advantage... The difference between the combat and craftsman classes in battle really are as vast as they say."

"It wasn't a problem, really. To be honest, I wasn't sure about what to do, but my party decided to help so I came too."

"Yes, we Merchants know best to not make unprofitable plays. I wouldn't' have blamed you if didn't help us, three against four or five enemies aren't favorable odds at all. Oh." He held out a hand. "The name's Bart."

"Veritas." He shook hands with the Merchant. "And they're Kirhi, and Gunter," he introduced as they approached.

"Really, thanks so much. We took a few losses, but the majority of us got away with our lives intact. As long as we didn't lose that and the merchandise, we'll be able to make up the loss of levels of our fallen when we rendezvous at our destination."

"Not a problem, Bart-ssi," Gunter assured. "We just couldn't simply sit by while you were all in danger."

"Listen, have you guys heard about what happened up ahead?" The three shook their heads. "Well, since I'm the boss of this group, I've had to keep my eyes and ears peeled. Word is that the checkpoint ahead is closed temporarily to those without authorization. Something about Rosenheim Kingdom's military performing drills near the border." At the party's look of displeasure at the news, he waved for their attention. "Looks like they might be worried about spies, but merchants are impartial and only look towards the profits. If you stick with us, we can get you through."

"Really? That'd be really swell." Kirhi smiled brightly.

"Yeah, you can pose as caravan guards, a lot of caravans have them nowadays."

"Then why didn't you have any?" asked Veritas.

"Couldn't afford it, sadly. The pay isn't much, but over long distances and periods of time, the figure really starts to add up. This is our caravan's first expedition, meant to give us the profits we need to pay for more secure trips and work our way up to expand the venture."

"In the end, it's always money," Gunter muttered bitterly.

"Indeed it is." Bart nodded knowingly. "Still, when it comes to money, there's no better friend than a merchant. So, will you accept this as a token of our thanks?"

Gunter, Kirhi, and Veritas all looked at each other, knowing the answer.

"Of course."

Traveling became much more pleasant when sitting in the horse-drawn carts now that they didn't have to walk. With new conversational partners, the two groups shared what stories they could, enjoying their short time together. At sundown, the caravan reached the checkpoint, and after a cursory inspection to make sure they weren't smuggling illegal goods or spies, they were allowed to pass.

"They bought the guard excuse, hook, line, and sinker," Veritas whispered to Kirhi gleefully.

"Well think of it this way, what kind of caravan _wouldn't _go without a guard? Us being here totally makes sense." Kirhi shot a grateful look at Bart, who was leading the horse of the front-most cart with the reins. "His plan was really ingenious."

"Yeah, I wouldn't have thought of doing that in a thousand years." he chuckled. "Anyways, Gunter-nim really knocked out pretty fast once we got past that checkpoint, didn't he?"

"He always gets sleepy in vehicles. The reason he managed to stay awake until now was probably out of nervousness that we might get caught."

"So, how long are we gonna ride with the merchants?"

"The nearest settlement would be a border village two days south-southwest from here," Bart answered, consulting a map of the region. "But it's small and subsequently unprofitable. Where we're heading is a town six days northwest from here. We'll stop there, sell some of our merchandise, then head for the capital, where we'll get rid of everything else and stock up on new merchandise."

"Why do you do that?" asked Veritas.

"Easy. Different regions possess plentiful amounts of certain resources and are lacking in others. The point of trade is to give what you have a lot of to a nation that doesn't, buying low in one country and selling it high in another. Then you repeat it the other way. Both countries get the resources they want, and the merchants make money. Supply and demand."

"Huh..."

"Speaking on the topic of supply and demand, craftsman classes have it _really _tough right now, with weak combat ability and low progress rates of the craft skills. But, as players reach a higher level and hit the limit to what they can obtain through NPC stores, the demand for high-quality or made-to-order weapons will rise and we noncombat classes will finally see the light at the end of the tunnel."

"Limit?"

"That's right, Veritas-nim, limit. NPC stores in Royal Road aren't like other MMORPGs. They also are run by the laws of supply and demand, and they can run out of stock just like any other player-run shop. The stock of equipment are supplied by NPC blacksmiths and the kingdom's monster-clearing patrols. Because the drop rate for the best equipment is obscenely low, this type of equipment will be reserved exclusively for the country's use. The kind of weapons and armor you'll find in stores will be common or uncommon, but never rare or unique. Like this, it wouldn't be hard to hit the upper limit of geometrically increasing attack and defense that equipment can offer when the strength of monsters increases exponentially as their levels increase."

"Geometric? Exponential?"

"Hmm, let's put it this way. Two times four is eight, while two to the fourth is two times two times two times two is sixteen. Basically, exponential increases rises much, _much _faster than geometric increases."

"Ah, I see."

"Anyways, if I could ask Kirhi-him and Veritas-nim to keep watch until we stop for the day, that'd be much appreciated."

"Sure."

"No problem. I'm used to taking the watch."

Kirhi raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Where'd you learn to do that?"

He just grinned mischievously. "That's a secret."

xxxx

"Ugh... That bastard, what was he?" grumbled the hooded rogue in Ledern Kingdom's capital, Grisamoor. He'd respawned in an alleyway with his partner after four days and were now heading back to their base of operations.

"The guild's gonna be pissed, especially Hanzou," the masked rogue murmured. "That was supposed to be an easy mark, but now we've got squat to show for it."

"Man... Hayden, you think if we explain everything, he won't chew us out?"

Hayden shook his head. "He'd probably tell us it was still our fault because we weren't skilled enough to deal with them. Anyways, I'll go in first, Marcus."

The two rogues entered through a doorway and disappeared, no one else the wiser. This kingdom, Ledern, which lined the southwest border of the Briton Confederacy, had a greater black market presence than most. On the other hand, knight nations like Briton, Keurion and Kallamore, and militant nations like Rosenheim, Brent, Prain, and Aytern, with their strict enforcement, had very weak underground presences.

As for their guild, they could've based at a tavern, where the costs would be limited to just the drinks, but one too many outbursts from them had had them thrown out and threatened with certain death if they returned. Their group had therefore been forced to occupy an abandoned house, and although the government itself didn't know they were staying there, they had to pay membership dues to the Thieves' Guild. These dues mostly went to not being ratted out to the government.

Inside, they met up with the other Warrior that Bart had felled. When players first started playing Royal Road, their respawn point would be set to the city they'd chosen to start in, but this point could be changed for a small price. All the players set these respawn points often, so that they wouldn't have to travel as far if they happened to die. Respawn points were limited to settlements and could also be set at fortifications.

They entered the meeting room and reported their loss to the guild leader and their fellows. It was a small guild to be sure, just twelve members, but that did not mean they were any less ruthless than the various other black guilds in Royal Road.

"So you lost the caravan?" demanded another member.

"And to only three people, no less," a second condemned. "You had five people. That's pretty pathetic."

"Calm down, Vice, Mattrick." The guild leader, Hanzou, looked at them. "Hayden, Marcus, Jett, let's hear it from you three, since Vanne and Murlin aren't back yet. You five are hardly weak, so how did you manage to die?"

"One of the merchants was Bart. He's well known for being one of the strongest Merchants in combat, and his level is around the mid 90s, last I heard," Jett explained. "He used his large level advantage to pretty much match me blow for blow, but I made a misstep and paid for it."

Marcus stepped forward next. "I uploaded the footage of my and Hayden's fight. I believe that seeing will be believing."

Hanzou contemplated Marcus' resolute expression, expressing confidence that he'd be exonerated. "Go on then. We'll take a recess to watch the video."

Marcus sent the link to the video to everyone in the room, the others then logging out to watch it. After several minutes, they began to log back on, one by one. Finally, when everyone finished logging back in, they began discussing with one another in earnest.

"That Ranger and Wizard were nothing special, but that Warrior was a work of art!"

"What kind of Warrior pumps stats into Agility over Strength? Unbelievable..."

"That kind of martial arts skill is way beyond any basic or intermediate level. Possibly a master..."

"Those throwing knives did some amazing damage to Marcus. Where the hell did he get ones that strong?"

"Mine would only do a fourth of what he did..."

"Well, from what I'm hearing and the video I saw, it couldn't be helped, could it?" Hanzou twiddled his fingers idly. "Still, this guy killed two of our guild. Hands up, who thinks we should let this guy go after doing that?"

No one raised their hands, to no one's surprise.

"So, I assume we don't have a name for this bastard."

"No, we don't, but it can't be too hard to find the name of a player with this level of fighting skill."

"Hanzou, do you have any ideas?"

Hanzou remained silent for a while, thinking about something. Out of respect for the man that'd supported them as newbies, they waited silently for him to speak. "Marcus and Hayden, what are your levels right now?"

"Uh, I'm level 80." Marcus looked at Hayden.

"And I'm level 78."

"..."

"What's the problem, Hanzou?"

"I'm not too sure, but... I'm pretty sure I've seen that armor before, it was level 51 armor."

"Maybe he's just being economical and saving money by not buying new armor," Jett suggested. "Hell, I do that all the time."

"Maybe." Hanzou sounded doubtful, even though he himself didn't know why. "Regardless, though we've decided to revenge ourselves upon him, we shouldn't let it interfere with our regular duties. Once we figure out who he is and where he's at, we'll make him wish he never messed with us. Until then, we should go about our own business. So, this meeting is now adjourned."

And so, unbeknownst to our hero, his first enemies swore to end his life.

xxxx

"Eurgh, I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting _really _tired of this stale rye bread."

It was ten more days later, six since Bart dropped them off at the town of Vilian. From there, the three of them had traveled northwest, following a worn animal trail. Bart had warned them that the trip north would be dangerous. While this path was supposed to lead to the barbarian city of Helmstad, from the Confederacy's borders onwards, it would be wilderness.

That meant there were to be no pitstops, since the route from Vilian to Helmstad had no towns in between. The monsters gained several levels immediately upon crossing the border and, although the chill of the wilderness was only a fraction of that of the wastelands, remaining unprotected from the elements could cause detrimental status effects to appear.

The barbarians were hardier and stronger and more cold-resistant than most races on the continent, with higher Strength and Stamina stats. Also, one could only obtain the whispered Berserker class from them in Helmstad.

As it were, Helmstad, their largest city, was located close to the Briton Confederacy's border, as the true north was extremely dangerous on top of the frigid cold, even for those above level 200. The true north was almost completely uncharted and filled with dangerous beasts, even the undead.

The north was repulsively cold, causing people to catch colds within minutes and freeze them to death within hours. Even wearing the best leathers did not prevent the arctic cold from seeping into the bones. Frequent blizzards quickly put out even the liveliest flames and buried in snow those who survived the freeze.

Veritas silently thanked whatever deity there was that they wouldn't have to go that far. But, at the same time, he cursed it for the endless meals of dry, hard bread.

Even Kirhi and Gunter were fed up with it, as they didn't offer their usual consolations.

_I wonder how they have so much free time though, since it's been six, almost seven days in real-time since we left Rosenheim. I don't have a job – not that I can get one anyway – and I don't need to go to school... But what do they do? Though, it's not really my business, is it. _

It became chillier as they walked further north, the forests becoming so sparse that they became reduced to clumps of trees seen every once in a while. They were now in a tundra, the air dry and cold, the land bare of all but the heartiest brush.

"How much farther?" Gunter whined.

"Oh, suck it up Gunter, it's not that cold."

"But Kirhiiii..."

"Hey guys, isn't it strange we haven't seen any monsters yet?" Veritas was becoming more and more wary as they went. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened to him. Bad memories of Ahrah Forest bubbled to the forefront.

"Yeah, I've been wondering about that. I know this is supposed to be the safest route to Helmstad, but we saw more danger on the way to the Confederacy's borders."

"M-Maybe we should head back?"

"Oh be quiet, Gunter."

On a whim, Veritas checked the elven compass, which pointed west-northwest.

_I'm surprised any elves live up here where it's colder and there are so few trees. _

Weirdly enough, by the time Helmstad came into view over on the horizon, they still hadn't encountered any monsters. It was as they got closer that the reason why was revealed to them.

Masses of players ran through the tundras around the city, slaughtering every living thing. The concentration of players here was far beyond what any of them had experienced before. For every square mile, there had to have been at least sixty or so players competing for monster spawns. Intrepid users went off in groups to hunt away from the city, explaining why they hadn't encountered any monsters on the way here. They were being killed off.

The monsters of the wilderness between the two nations weren't so strong as to cow travelers from coming to the Barbarian cities. What they lacked in the strength typified by the far north, they made up for in numbers. But when the amount of players rose to such a critical level, even that strength became for naught.

"Wow," Kirhi breathed, "just look at them all. What do you think they're all doing here?"

Veritas shrugged. "Maybe this is the only effective place to increase their levels? Since the monsters get a lot tougher north."

"Maybe it's got something to do with the Berserker class." Gunter closed his eyes, trying to remember something. "I think that one of the requirements to class change was something like, 'kill x monsters within x time' or something like that. I heard that the class change quest isn't affected by parties like with other kill quests, which might be why all these guys are fighting solo and competing with one another."

"Damn, sounds tough. Berserker sounds like a cool name, and dual-wielding sounds pretty awesome. I guess I can understand why these guys are all desperate to become one."

It was just as packed inside the city, filled with people trying to buy and sell the items related to various quests.

It took them some time to get through the crowds and buy what they needed. Food and medical supplies, mainly. Veritas cried a few tears of grateful joy as he chewed on some jerky, the local specialty. While they sold rye bread as well, the jerky came close to being just as cheap and provided a welcome change to the party's palate.

They also spent some time browsing through weapons and armor. What they discovered was that Helmstad had no Smithy or Craftsman's Guild, and therefore no craftsmen. Instead, the drop rate for common and uncommon weapons in the tundra around the city were increased and large numbers of the average weapons sold cheaply to compensate.

Veritas looked through the wares, but found nothing that caught his fancy. The weapons might as well be considered junk, and he was loath to spend his money on something of this quality. He'd always been careful in his purchases back in Konoha. Heck, even his orange jumpsuit lasted him for years! He bought durable kunai and shuriken – often through a third party though, since no one wanted to sell to him personally – and he'd always picked up his thrown weapons after a battle.

It did occur to him right then that, with no Smithy, he might be the only one in Helmstad with the Repair skill, which could work out very well in his favor.

_I wonder if I could do business charging people to repair their best, favorite weapons. I probably could. Making money and increasing my Repair skill at the same time, mmmm..._

They then entered the crowded square, jostling through the mass for an open spot. It was a bit tough, since the tall height of the countless barbarians filling the square often blocked their line of sight.

Veritas squeezed between two particularly space-ignorant barbarians. "Geez, this is pretty annoying."

"You said it. Come on Gunter, keep up. Don't blame me if you lose sight of us and get lost."

"I'm c-coming."

Nearby, a loud voice began droning.

"Come one, come all! Gather 'round, for we have missions of the utmost importance! Fair citizens of this city, rise and serve a nobler cause! Offer your strength and body to help your home prosper!"

Veritas and co. exchanged puzzled looks even as groans filled the air.

"Not this guy again."

"My entire party got wiped trying to do the last one."

"None of us are even at the level needed to finish this guy's quests. Give us something related to our level!"

The NPC, a grizzled barbarian, caught a glimpse of them and came in like a guided missile.

"You there! You're not from here," he declared, singling the three of them out. "No fool in his right mind would travel north unless he was supremely confident in his own abilities! You three must be very strong foreigners, am I right?"

"No, we're not," Kirhi denied. "We came here on a whim."

"Nonsense! No need to be so humble, we barbarians thrive on being prideful of our accomplishments!"

"Like I said..."

"Brave adventurers, the elves to our northwest have been driving back our fair city's efforts at expansion! For this city's sake, I beseech thee, take care of the elves and secure our prosperity!"

::::

**Snow Elf Subjugation**

**For centuries, the barbarians of the Versaille continent have always just scraped by, but under the leadership of the new chieftain, they have begun to have pride not just as warriors, but as a people. Now they seek to enrich themselves on the numerous untouched resources around them.**

**But the snow elves near Helmstad have furiously and violently opposed any and all efforts by the city to expand and prosper. Defeating the elves will remove the final obstacle for the city to become a true capital for the barbarians.**

**Quest Difficulty: D**

**Rewards: Barbaros' Mithril Battleaxe**

**Quest Restrictions: Complete before winter.**

::::

The players around them began to offer advice.

"Be careful, this guy's notorious for handing out difficult quests."

"Yeah, several of us already tried to complete this quest, but we couldn't even get close to the forest. Those snow elves are ridiculously strong."

"They have to be at least level 100."

"That D-Rank difficulty is really deceptive."

"If you really want, accept the quest and try to beat it, but my tip is to not be afraid to quit quests when it's obvious you can't finish it."

"I don't think you should accept, because "winter" in this game is only a month away. Even if you wanted to take your time and hopefully take out one elf at a time, you won't have the time for that."

Gunter, still shivering slightly, agreed, "We shouldn't accept this quest. We might've completed the Basic Training Course, but even adding that we're still too weak to fight anything that's level 100 or higher."

"You know, Gunter, right now I might be regretting just a little that we had Veritas-nim be the party leader."

"W-why?"

"Look at his face. That disgusting look of confidence. He's going to accept it. I can't believe he's going to accept it."

"I'll help your city with the elves," Veritas declared to confirm Kirhi's suspicions.

::::

**You have accepted the quest.**

::::

"Splendid!" The barbarian shook hands with him roughly and firmly. "My name is Barbaros, and I am our city's Chief of War. If not at the Chieftain's Hall, you'll find me here in the square. I await good news, brave adventurers!"

"Veritas-nim..."

"V-Veritas-nim, w-whyyyyy?"

"Ha! Don't worry guys, I have a pretty good idea about how to get in the forest." Veritas pointed dramatically towards the northwest, striking an exaggerated pose. "Onward!"

xxxx


End file.
